1

U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

DEVELOPING 

AN AUDIT 

TRAIL

March 2008

Quick Start M a n a g e

m e n t

G u i d e

www.eac.gov
2

Quick Start Management Guide

The Quick Start Management Guide for 

Developing an Audit Trail is part of a series 

of brochures designed to highlight and 

summarize the information contained in 

the chapters of the U.S. Election Assistance 

Commission’s (EAC) Election Management 

Guidelines (EMG). The goal of the EMG is to 

provide a collection of election management 

guidelines, consolidated into one document, 

to assist State and local election officials 

effectively manage and administer elections. 

These guidelines are solely designed to 

serve as a source of information for election 

officials and not as requirements by which 

they must abide. The EAC expects the EMG 

to be completed in 2008. However, due to 

the urgent need for election management 

resources, EMG chapters and Quick Starts 

are released as they are completed.

The content of the EMG and the Quick Start 

Management Guides has been developed in 

collaboration with State and local election 

officials and other election professionals 

who have first-hand experience managing 

elections. The EAC is grateful for their 

participation and ensuring the guidelines 

are practical and applicable for jurisdictions 

regardless of their size and resources. The 

EMG and the Quick Starts are available 

online at www.eac.gov.

Developing an

Audit

Trail
3

Developing an Audit Trail

www.eac.gov

Introduction

● Ensuring elections are administered fairly, 

accurately, transparently, and efficiently requires 

creating documentation of each component 

involved in the development and conduct of 

an election. These components include all preelection, Election Day, and post-election activities; 

examples include, but are not limited to, candidate 

filing forms, voter registration lists, verification of 

voting systems, poll workers, etc. Documentation 

of these processes may also serve to prove the 

accuracy and validity of an election in a court of 

law and resolve questions regarding the integrity 

of the election.

● Furthermore, developing a formal record (audit 

trail) of an election’s components is an essential 

tool for election administrators to accurately 

evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the 

processes established to conduct an election. It is 

therefore important to establish accurate methods 

and procedures for documenting and reviewing an 

election’s audit trail.
4

Quick Start Management Guide

Documenting voting

precincts, districts, and voter

registration data

● Each election is unique and involves specific 

races and/or questions. The first step in setting 

up an election is determining which districts 

and precincts will be included in the election. In 

many jurisdictions, precincts can be divided by 

district lines, resulting in what is referred to as 

“split precincts.” It is important to understand 

the correlation between census tracts, voting 

precincts, and voting districts. Begin your 

documentation process for each election by 

printing and validating the following reports 

from your voter registration software: 

● Listing of all precincts and districts assigned 

to each precinct.

● Listing of any split precincts, if applicable, 

and districts assigned to each.

These reports will verify that all precincts for an 

election are associated with the correct district. 

Tip: Merging the data in the voter registration 

software with GIS will allow you to visually verify 

and confirm that the data is accurate.
5

Developing an Audit Trail

www.eac.gov

● Understand the design and features of your 

State’s and/or jurisdiction’s voter registration 

software. Confirm that the software has the 

ability to validate that all residential addresses 

are assigned to a specific precinct. If possible, 

consider printing a validation report as a 

component of your election audit trail. 

Tip: Flag any addresses that serve as post office 

box repositories. 

● Confirm that your software has features that will 

not allow a voter record to be processed unless 

the user completes the entire transaction. 

Example: A data entry staff member inadvertently 

skips part of the process required to enter a new 

voter record. Should that happen, the voter record 

may appear to be processed, but would not be 

associated with a precinct which means the voter’s 

name would not appear on the precinct voter list 

on Election Day.
6

Quick Start Management Guide

Setting Up and Validating

an Election

● Prior to every major election cycle, develop 

a master checklist to use as your guide for 

documenting and validating the election. Once 

the checklist has been developed, require staff 

to follow this checklist and submit the required 

documentation for final sign-off and approval. 

This documentation should be filed in the order 

that it appears on the checklist and stored for 

auditing purposes. 

● A master checklist may include the following 

documents:

● Original candidate filing forms and/or 

questions to be submitted
7

Developing an Audit Trail

www.eac.gov

● Computer printout after data is entered, 

with dual sign-off indicating that it has been 

validated to the original documents 

● System validation report that verifies the 

precincts associated with an election are 

assigned to the correct polling places

● Any other reports that are developed for 

distribution to the public. These include legal 

publications, candidate listings, polling place 

listings, etc. –if these reports are developed 

by staff working outside of the election setup 

software (i.e. word processing). 

● Ballot styles for proofing purposes

● Any unique State requirements (i.e. candidate 

rotation report)

● Document confirming that each unique ballot 

style has been validated against the candidate 

and district/precinct lists

● Final, approved copy of the ballot deck sent to 

the printer

● Ballot proofs returned by the printer, proofed 

to the approved ballot deck sent to the printer

Note: If the office uses separate, nonintegrated 

systems to maintain information (i.e. Web site 

information and separate poll worker and polling 

place databases) make sure to evaluate and address 

the potential risks posed by this (i.e. dual data entry of 

critical data). 
8

Quick Start Management Guide

Maintaining the Outgoing

and Incoming Audit Trail for

Absentee and Early Voting

Paper Ballots

● Develop internal reporting procedures to verify 

that all requests for absentee/early ballots are 

balanced on a daily basis to the envelopes 

printed for ballot stuffing. Tip: Create a daily log 

sheet for staff to enter the number of applications 

processed. The same log sheet should keep record 

of the number of envelopes printed, stuffed, 

sealed, and delivered to the post office on a daily 

basis. There should be dual-staff sign off at each 

step of the process.

● Establish the same controls for ballots returned by 

mail. Develop internal procedures to record and 

verify the number of ballot envelopes returned, 

number of ballot envelopes challenged, and 

number of ballot envelopes authorized to be 

opened. These log sheets become a part of the 

internal audit trail for absentee/early ballots.

● Confirm that the number of voter records 

receiving voter history for each day’s returned 

ballot envelopes matches the number of ballot 

envelopes flagged as receiving voter history. 

Verify this number by printing reports from your 

voter software on a daily basis. These reports also 

become a component of the absentee/early ballots 

audit trail. Tip: It may help to use the analogy that 

an absentee ballot return operation can be similar 

to working in a bank. For example, each ballot 

envelope can represent a dollar bill; they must be 

counted, bundled, and balanced at the end of 

each day. 
9

Developing an Audit Trail

www.eac.gov

● Examples of an absentee ballot audit trail include:

● Daily log of returned ballot envelopes

● Challenged ballot envelope log

● Rejected ballot envelope log

● Summary of data entry voter history log

● Batch number assignment log, if applicable

● Scanner log, if applicable
10

Quick Start Management Guide

Documenting Outgoing Polling

Place Supplies and Equipment

● Validate that the supply case for each polling place 

contains all of the materials required for Election 

Day. Maintain a checklist for each supply case to 

ensure all contents have been properly packaged. 

Require that two staff members confirm the 

contents and sign off on the checklist. Each of the 

supply case checklists become a part of the audit 

trail for the election.

● Identify the Election Day supplies considered to be 

critical to the conduct of the election and develop 

a separate checklist and documentation method 

for these items. Examples include: provisional 

ballots and envelopes, voter machine activation 

cards, voter registration list, and voting machine 

keys. Tip: Create a policy that requires the staff 

designated as “Supply Supervisor” to conduct the 

final audit of these documents and sign off on the 

checklist; these will become part of the election’s 

audit trail.

● Identify the polling place supply documents that 

will be archived as a part of the election audit trail. 

Examples include:

● Voting machine opening zero tapes and 

closing results tapes

● Opening and closing validation reports 

(confirming voting machine serial numbers 

and security seals/tapes)

● Voter lists with voter signatures

● Voter receipts or acknowledgement cards

● Provisional ballot signature list

● End of day tally sheets
11

Developing an Audit Trail

www.eac.gov

Documenting the Preparation

and Delivery of Voting

Equipment

● Develop internal checklists for acceptance testing, 

diagnostics, and logic/accuracy testing of the 

voting equipment. Maintain a complete set of 

checklists for each machine used in each election. 

Create a centralized filing system to store and 

archive these documents. Examples to be included 

in each machine’s file folder are:

● Acceptance testing checklist 

● Logic and accuracy checklist

● Pre-election checklist (includes information 

such as protective counter number, protective 

seal numbers, etc.)

● Machine tapes and other printed supporting 

documentation validating logic and accuracy 

testing

● Use individual polling place delivery sheets to 

verify the delivery of polling place supplies and 

equipment prior to Election Day. Require dual 

person sign off on each delivery sheet – the 

signature of the delivery person and the signature 

of the person accepting delivery at each polling 

place location. These delivery sheets become a part 

of the audit trail for each election. Tip: Maintain 

documentation that all seals are intact and the 

seal numbers match the numbers recorded prior to 

delivery.
12

Quick Start Management Guide

Developing a Polling Place

Audit Trail

● Educate poll workers, in particular those with 

supervisory roles, about the importance of 

separation of duties and the significance of the 

audit trail created at each polling place on Election 

Day. Their participation in this process is critical 

to the success of the audit trail.

● Develop a checklist for performing an audit of 

each polling place.

● Package supplies so that the first item removed 

from the supply case is the first step involved in 

creating the audit trail for the day. Examples of the 

polling place audit trail include:

● Opening verification form confirming voting 

machine serial numbers and protective 

counter numbers and acknowledging that 

security seal numbers are intact.

● Opening zero tapes printed from each voting 

machine

● Confirmation of the correct paper ballot styles 

and quantity 

● Signed poll worker oath of office forms

● Mid-tally sheets (if applicable, used to balance 

voters checked in to votes collected throughout 

the day) Tip: Train poll workers to think of each 

voting machine as an individual cash register 

containing dollar bills (votes). Money (votes) 

collected throughout the day must balance to 

the cash register tape (VVPAT).

● Closing verification form confirming voting 

machine serial numbers, end of day protective 

counter numbers, and closing security 

seal numbers.
13

Developing an Audit Trail

www.eac.gov

● End of day closing tapes printed from each 

voting machine

● Confirmation of remaining quantity of paper 

ballot by style and precinct

● Closing balance form, used to record total 

number of voters processed – balanced to 

votes collected in all voting machines and/or 

paper ballots

● Provide poll workers with an easily identifiable 

closing package, along with the checklist, for 

their use in returning the Election Day audit trail 

documents to the election office. Tip: Consider 

establishing an incentive program to reward 

poll workers who successfully complete the audit 

paperwork and return all required documents in 

the polling place closing package. 

● Train Election Day “rovers” to use a checklist 

for each polling place to ensure that all setup 

procedures have been followed both outside and 

inside the polling place. Require that the rover 

and the supervising poll worker sign off on the 

checklist for each polling place. This checklist 

becomes a component of the Election Day 

audit trail.
14

Quick Start Management Guide

Performing a Post-Election

Audit

● Recruit and train staff for the purpose of 

managing and completing the post election audit. 

Tip: Partner with other county agencies (i.e. Budget, 

Audit, or Finance Offices) to borrow staff members 

to assist your office with this task. 

● Review the checklist developed for performing 

an audit of each polling place. Begin by gathering 

all of the closing packages for each polling 

place; then inventory the contents and review all 

documentation. 

● Assign teams to separate tasks: one team to 

reconcile voters processed to votes collected; 

another team to reconcile voting machine opening 

and closing forms and tapes; and another to 

balance paper ballots delivered, minus ballots 

issued, equals unused ballots returned; etc.

● Conduct the audit in an assembly line fashion, 

with a final validation of all components by the 

final staff team. Note: State law may also require 

additional random audits. 
15

Developing an Audit Trail

www.eac.gov
For information regarding this publication or to request 

additional copies, please, contact: 

Address

U.S. Election Assistance Commission 

1225 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 1100 

Washington, DC 20005

Attn: Election Management Guidelines

Telephone

(202) 566-3100 

(866) 747-1471 (toll free)

Fax

(202) 566-3127

E-mail Address

HAVA info@eac.gov

Website

www.eac.gov

The EAC is an independent bipartisan commission 

created by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). 

It is charged with administering payments to states 

and developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, 

implementing election administration improvements, 

adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, 

accrediting voting system test laboratories and 

certifying voting equipment and serving as a national 

clearinghouse and resource of information regarding 

election administration.