New Jersey: Mandatory Random Manual Audit Bill Introduced in State Senate

[Wilms]

New Jersey: Mandatory Random Manual Audit Bill Introduced in State Senate

By Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy, VoteTrustUSA

January 12, 2006

Bill Would Create An Appointed "Audit Team" To Select and Conduct a Statewide 2% Hand Counted Audit

State Senator Nia Gill (D-Essex and Passaic) has introduced S. 507 (full text), a bill that requires mandatory handcounted audits of 2% of election results in the state. Twelve states have similar audit provisions and several others will be considering similar legislation this year. Last summer Governor Richard Codey signed a bill into law requiring that voting systems used in the state produce or require the use of a voter verified paper record of every vote. Like that bill, the provisions of S. 507 would not take effect until 2008.

The bill calls for the creation of an audit team selected by the Attorney General, the chief state election administrator under New Jersey law. The number and composition of that team is undefined except that one of the members should have "verifiable expertise in the field of statistics". The team will conduct random hand counts ofvoter verified paper records in at least 2% of the election districts in federal and state elections. Hand counts would also be made of the results of at least one voting machine in each election district. Votes cast in electronic voting machines, provisional ballots, absentee ballots, and the ballots of military and overseas federal election voters would all be included in the audit.

The bill does not provide a specific trigger mechanism for additional hand counts, should the initial audit reveal inconsistencies. Rather it leaves it to the Attorney General to determine if such discrepancies "show cause for concern". The action to be taken in that event, including the possibility of further handcounts, is similarly left to the determination of the Attorney General.

The randomness of the selection process is prescribed in the bill by requiring that the "selection of the election districts and county and municipal elections to be audited shall be made…on a random basis using a uniform distribution in which all districts…have an equal chance of being selected…except that at least one voting machine in one district shall be selected for an audit in each county in the State". Similar language appears in legislation currently before the Pennsylvania Assembly.

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http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=720&Itemid=113

[Wilms]

1. .

[yourout]

2. Great start but....

there needs to be an automatic recount if the audit results vary by a specified amount and not left up to the
whim of the Arrorney General.

[FogerRox]

3. When S29 was passed it was the weakest bill of its kind in the country

The EssexCounty task Force on Voting rights made it clear to Nia Gill that Mandatory audits were required, she promised she would write the bill, she has kept that promise. But more work is needed.

[Wilms]

4. Text of NJ mandatory VVPB audit bill- please crtique

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x408936