Wisconsin officials were praised Friday by election-security advocates for expanding the state’s use of post-election audits. The Wisconsin Elections Commission announced that it voted unanimously Tuesday to require audits in 5 percent of precincts throughout the state after every vote, beginning with the Nov. 6 general election. The decision is evidence that the clock has not run out yet on states seeking to improve their ballot-security procedures before Election Day, said representatives of Verified Voting, which advocates for paper-based voting systems and Public Citizen, a consumers’ rights group. Under Wisconsin’s new system, election officials will randomly select at least 183, or 5 percent, of the state’s 3,660 precincts to review voting equipment. The audit sample will include at least one precinct from each of the state’s 72 counties, but no more than two precincts from any single municipality.
… The new audit procedures also require each type of ballot machine in selected precincts to be reviewed, a consequence of the state’s diverse inventory of voting equipment.
“Wisconsin is a tricky state to audit,” said Verified Voting spokesperson Aurora Matthews. “Some precincts are all paper. Some are not.”
Organizations like Verified Voting have pushed states to adopt stronger post-election auditing rules as means to safeguard against security threats that could tamper the recording of votes. “Robust, routine post-election audits of vote tabulation machines are vital for protecting U.S. elections and bolstering public confidence,” Mark Lindeman, the group’s senior science and technology policy officer, said in a press release.
Full Article: Wisconsin expands use of post-election audits.