Conservative statistical post-election audits

Understand

There are many sources of error in counting votes: the apparent winner might not be the rightful winner.

• Hand tallies of the votes in a random sample of precincts can be used to test the hypothesis that a full manual recount would find a different outcome.
• This paper develops a conservative sequential test based on the vote-counting errors found in a hand tally of a simple or stratified random sample of precincts.
• The procedure includes a natural escalation: If the hypothesis that the apparent outcome is incorrect is not rejected at stage $s$, more precincts are audited.