Check election audits: Scenes 1-5
Channel: Lang1234
Date: 2022-06-05

SOURCES of anything surprising are here. Or ask in comments.
No matter our differences, most of us want to be sure vote counts are right. Extremists don’t want us to be sure. They want doubts and violence, so people don’t vote, and they can dominate anyone who wins. That’s why Americans are coming together to make our elections work right, so every voice is heard, and elections reflect the will of the people.

0:00 1 - Risks, even when not connected to internet, risk-limiting audits, observe, campaign, logic & accuracy tests
5:40 2 - Hand-counting, samples of precincts or election machines, deterrence, anonymous public copies, ballot image audits
10:17 3 - Locks, seals, checking before ballots go into storage, hash values & digital signatures
14:31 4 - Audit software, observers
16:03 5 - Can public data can be mis-used? Telling truth from fiction, why we check so little

TRANSCRIPT & citations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qnjHBZJRTNB42irahsR624FW0jD-EY0JzVmovINjTBU/edit?usp=sharing
MORE INFORMATION in graphic & 10 pages: http://ssrn.com/abstract=4178650
and 33 pages: http://votewell.net/all.pdf

SUMMARY:

DESCRIBING ELECTION AUDITS
A. Errors can enter election machines during annual updates.
B. Most audits cover few contests, and don't catch errors in other contests.
C. Tests before elections don't catch all errors during elections.
D. Most audits cover few precincts or machines, so have small chance of catching errors.
E. Light penalties are a weak deterrent.
F. Stored ballots are not always a reliable check.

IMPROVING ELECTION AUDITS
A. Observe election processing:  https://scrutineers.org/after
B. Join a local election group:  http://www.votewell.net/state.htm
C. Release electronic copies of anonymous ballots for independent checking.
D. Use anonymous ballot copies to refute false claims and move election fights onto a path which supports democracy, and doesn't hurt it

CITATIONS (These are also in plain text at end of script link, above)

Senate Intelligence “Committee continues to be concerned that vendors represent an enticing target [f]or malicious cyber actors.” https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/publications/russia-inquiry 

Brennan Center found hundreds of errors nationwide: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/design-deficiencies-and-lost-votes with more recent examples at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_in_the_United_States#Errors_in_optical_scans 

Check just one or two contests; and hand-count 2% (or less): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_audit#Table_of_audit_rules 

More and more places give give copies of the anonymous scanned ballots to the public: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballot-foia.png

Software can analyze scanned ballots and help people tally them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s52pjYAWnM0 

Samples’ chance of catching errors: formulas are at the end of script link above, and https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KRSIzmY_Ip5VhnpVf_SVvVwKcZlCe9BOKiF5cHt6McE/edit?usp=sharing 

Small penalties for election crimes: http://www.votewell.net/prosecution.htm 

YouTubes about lockpicking: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ULUz4u5FLYg?start=166&end=179 

Children bypassing seals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaOVIFnoljo

Russians hacking security cameras: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idOpgrq9czc

Verified Voting says that same-day checking is ideal. https://verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Checking-The-Paper-Record-A-Guide-For-Public-Oversight-Of-Tabulation-Audits.pdf  p.14 "If votes were tabulated and the tabulation audited at the polling place at the end of the voting day, the chain of custody could be easily verified. For a variety of reasons, this ideal is almost never attained." VV doesn't distinguish in that quote about type of tabulation or type of audit. The "ideal" fully works only for checking a small sample of images, since batch comparisons wouldn't be allowed on early voting days, and RLAs depend on final results, which polling places won't know. The words in the script are designed to reflect the concept accurately, without restricting it to polling places.

Pew Research Center found that only 13% of Republicans and 4% of Democrats were "very confident that election systems are secure from hacking and other technological threats."  Pew 10/29/18, “Election security” https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/10/29/election-security/ 

ANIMALS: 
CC-A-SA license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bear_(Ursus_arctos).jpg 
CC-A license https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daisy_the_Dalmatian.jpg
Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:File-Cow_and_bull_bison_in_rut;-Jim_Peaco;-July_2012;-Catalog_18940d;-Original_IMG_5670_(8cff5b38-fc57-493c-b665-10dfbb551c77).jpg 
CC-A-SA license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beaver-_Steve_Hersey_edit_(16273141142).jpg 
CC-A license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odocoileus_virginianus_(white-tailed_deer)_10_(8270245832).jpg