Audits of the Vote Count

Congressman Rush Holt Introduces New Bill January 17, 2008

H.R.5036
"To direct the Administrator of General Services to reimburse certain jurisdictions for the costs of obtaining paper ballot voting systems for the general elections for Federal office to be held in November 2008, to reimburse jurisdictions for the costs incurred in conducting audits or hand counting of the results of the general elections for Federal office to be held in November 2008, and for other purposes."

What Should Wisconsin do about Audits of the Vote Counts?

If federal legislation requiring audits is passed, Wisconsin will need a statute, rule, or procedure to follow the new law.  If not, then Wisconsin needs a statute to require audits.

In 2003, Wisconsin passed legislation to conform to HAVA.  This mentioned audits to verify the accuracy of the voting machines.  After the November 2006 election, Wisconsin ran a crippled audit that was not intended to affect the contests.  The election results were certified long before the audit report was issued in April 2007

Final complete audit procedure, which quotes the statute 7.08(6) that triggered the audit.

This audit only covers November elections.  We need audits of vote counts for all of Wisconsin's elections.  Future audits must be completed before certification of the results. We need legislative action to mandate this.  See September 19, 2006 letter (scroll down) in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Web page by Paul Malischke       malischke@yahoo.com       Last updated February 02, 2008