On Auditing Elections When Precincts Have Different Sizes

We address the problem of auditing an election when precincts may have different sizes. Prior work in this field has emphasized the simpler case when all precincts have the same size. Using auditing methods developed for use with equal-sized precincts can, however, be inefficient or result in a loss of statistical confidence when applied in to elections with variablesized precincts. We survey, evaluate, and compare a variety of approaches to the variable-sized precinct auditing problem, including the safe method [11] based on theory developed for equal-sized precincts. We introduce new methods such as the negative-exponential method (negexp) that select precincts independently for auditing with predetermined probabilities, and the "ppebwr" method that uses a sequence of rounds to select precincts with replacement according to some predetermined probability distribution that may depend on error bounds for each precinct (hence the name ppebwr: probability proportional to error...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: USS
• Authors: Javed A. Aslam, Raluca A. Popa, Ronald L. Rivest
• Keywords: Auditing, Equal-sized Precincts, Operating System, Precincts, USS 2008