Auditing subcommittee meeting at clerk convention in Colorado

[Neal McBurnett <neal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm glad to say that the meeting of the Colorado Election Reform
Commission's Auditing and Technology subcommittee on Jan 5 in Pueblo
had an excellent, in-depth, enlightened discussion of auditing.  Audio
should be available soon.

 http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/lcsstaff/2008/comsched/08Electionsched.html
Audio of previous meetings is at
 http://www.democraticwing.org/

Thanks to Steve Pierson of the American Statistical Association for
helping make all this happen thru his correspondence with the chair,
Scott Doyle, and to many others for much work to date!  My input was
welcomed throughout the meeting, and Harvie Branscomb, in absentia,
also was accorded great respect.

They especially latched on to the brief "Colorado law improvements"
document that Steve and I wrote, and want to flesh that out into
legislative language.  We'll have an improved version of that out
soon for the subcommittee meeting today at 13:00 mountain time.

To access the stream, go to the General Assembly website at:

 http://www.leg.state.co.us/

Click on the "Video/Audio Broadcasts of Current Proceedings" button at
the top of the page.  Once you click through, click on the link for
House Committee Room 0112.

For more background, see 
 Principles and Best Practices for Post-Election Audits
 http://electionaudits.org/principles/

The subcommittee will be setting up a conference call to pursue this
further.  There was much talk of being a national leader in auditing
practice.

The biggest issue remains getting auditable data.  We discussed
getting the vendors to provide better reports, perhaps with simpler
certification requirements.

There was also discussion of getting source code access or directly
prying open the election databases at the center of the tally systems
in order to write our own reports based on all the data in their
proprietary databases.  I'd love input from those who have seen the
code on how successful that might be.

The deadline for the subcommitte to present its ideas to the full
Election Reform Commission is Jan 15.  The deadline for the ERC to
submit its final report and proposed legislation to the legislature is
Mar 1.

Furthermore, the clerks association released this statement:

Colorado Voting System Certification Position Statement
Prepared for the Colorado County Clerks Association
[Jan 5 2009]

[.... skipping 5 points about certification ....]

[Point 6]

  Post-election audit requirements should be enhanced using
  statistically valid standards.  Audit procedures should be governed
  by promulgated rules rather than statute.

  The CCCA is fully committed to accurate, auditable elections.  Under
  the guidance of the Secretary of State, audit professionals should
  be employed to review current proceures and recommend changes.

  Post-election auditing is an emerging methodology for ensuring the
  integrity of elections.  The Secretary of State should have the
  flexibility offered by promulgated rules in order to take advantage
  of the most current advancements in this area.

This fits in with the general tenor of the statement (giving lots of
latitude to the Secretary of State), but represents a great
opportunity to work with them on better audits.  Having a strong,
experienced advocate like Boulder's Hillary Hall probably helped a
lot.

Neal McBurnett                 http://neal.mcburnett.org/