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20% audits in CT?



Bysiewicz to ask this week for vote audits
By Keith M. Phaneuf, Journal Inquirer
02/27/2007
HARTFORD - Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz will ask a legislative committee this week to make Connecticut a national model in terms of voting safeguards.


 
The state's chief elections official is scheduled to testify Wednesday for her plan to mandate random voting audits in 20 percent of all precincts statewide, each year, starting in 2008.

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"This is very important to ensure the integrity of the voting process going forward," Bysiewicz said today. "Voters should feel confident that we have a fair and transparent election process."

The secretary's plan, submitted to the Government Administration and Elections Committee, would require a ballot-by-ballot hand recount of the vote one-fifth of the state's 769 voting precincts, or 154, each year. Precincts would be selected randomly.

Bysiewicz last year selected optical scan machines to replace the aging metal lever machines Connecticut must abandon to comply with federal election law.

While 25 cities and towns tried the new technology in a pilot program last Election Day, Bysiewicz says her office is in the midst of providing equipment and training to all communities, a project she expects to be completed by May.

Two post-election analyses of the pilot program found no mistakes made by the new machines - which read ballots that voters mark by filling in ovals next to candidates' names.

Congress adopted tougher election technology standards following the controversial 2000 presidential vote in Florida, mandating that all states must use machines that easily could be audited.

Unlike the metal lever machines, the optical scan system easily allows each ballot to be re-examined, both visually and electronically. Local election officials normally can complete an audit within one day.

Many states have no mandatory audit, but Congress is considering a bill that would require them in anywhere from 3 percent to 10 percent of precincts, depending on outcomes.
Bysiewicz said a 20 percent standard would set Connecticut apart from the rest of the country.