Risk Limiting Audits: What They Are and Aren't
Election auditing pioneer Philip Stark details how Risk-Limiting Audits (RLAs) provide statistical verification of paper ballots while warning against auditing untrustworthy vote records.
Summary
Principles of Risk-Limiting Audits (RLAs)
Risk-Limiting Audits (RLAs) provide a rigorous mathematical framework ensuring a large, pre-specified chance of correcting certified election outcomes if tabulation errors or cyber intrusions altered the winner.
Auditing Methods Across Election Types
Philip Stark explains modern RLA statistical sampling methodologies applicable to diverse election contests, including plurality races, supermajority requirements, and multiwinner instant-runoff voting.
The Prerequisite of Trustworthy Paper Ballots
RLAs can verify well-run elections that maintain a rigorous, uncompromised chain of physical paper ballots. However, conducting an RLA on untrustworthy, unverified, or poorly guarded paper records is mere 'security theater.'
Distinguishing Real Audits from Security Theater
Effective election verification requires pairing statistical post-election audits with rigorous physical paper custody and software-independent voter verification.
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