Senators Duel Over Audit Requirements in Election Security Bill
Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), both original cosponsors of the Secure Elections Act, have expressed divergent views on whether the bill must require hand-counted post-election audits.
The bill mandates that every state conduct a post-election audit, recounting a sample of ballots to verify the results. The latest version released by Senate Rules Committee chair Blunt would allow states to conduct those audits through electronic means or by hand. Previous versions specified that audits be done by hand.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the other original cosponsor, is open to Blunt’s version, and believes state officials should be responsible for choosing which system of auditing bests meets their needs.
Hand counting a randomly selected sample of vote totals is one component of what are known as risk-limiting audits. Digital audits do not account for the possibility that the system doing the comparison has also been hacked.
