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Principles and Best Practices for Post-Election Audits (2008 version)

Endorsed by the following organizations:

  • Brennan Center for Justice
  • Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections - Ohio
  • Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota
  • Coloradoans for Voting Integrity
  • Common Cause
  • CTVotersCount.org
  • E-Voter Education Project New York
  • Florida Voters Coalition
  • Georgians for Verified Voting
  • Iowans for Voting Integrity
  • Michigan Election Reform Alliance
  • SAVEourVotes-Maryland
  • Verified Voting
  • Voting Integrity Task Force - Coalition for Peace Action - New Jersey
  • Citizens for Election Integrity Massachusetts

Statistical portions, principles 5–7 and their best practices, endorsed by the American Statistical Association.

These principles were written to guide the design of high-quality postelection audits. They were developed by an ad hoc group comprising many stakeholders, including election officials, public advocates, computer scientists, statisticians, political scientists and legislators.

Table of Contents

Why Audit Election Results?

Auditing Principles

Best Practices:

Executive Editors

Mark Lindeman
Assistant Professor of Political Studies
Bard College*

Mark Halvorson
Director and Founder
Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota

Pamela Smith
President
Verified Voting

Lynn Garland

Vittorio Addona
Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Macalester College*

Dan McCrea
President and Co-founder
Florida Voters Foundation

* affiliations for identification purposes only