Plan to audit elections is progress

Making audits of elections not only possible but standard practice would build confidence in the accuracy of vote totals in the state. That’s the promise of House Bill 2543, scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the House Elections Committee.

As written, the bill would mandate a postelection audit, regardless of the method of voting, in 1 percent of all precincts “located within the county or in a district or race designated by the secretary of state.” The audits would occur between Election Day and each county board of canvassers’ certification of results in all 105 counties.

Though the push for it came from the ongoing legal fight by a private individual, Wichita statistician Elizabeth Clarkson, the bill calls for each audit to be conducted by a bipartisan election board in a public setting, with authorized poll watchers able to observe.

“I strongly support the bill because Kansans deserve the highest level of confidence in our election system,” House Elections Committee Chairman Mark Kahrs, R-Wichita, told The Eagle editorial board via e-mail Tuesday.

If the committee advances the bill, he said, he will fight for full House consideration before next week’s deadline for most bills to clear their originating chamber. He said it may be the “most far-reaching postelection audit legislation in the country in that it mandates audits in every county.”

Kahrs’ work on the issue is welcome, as is the Sedgwick County Commission’s stated support of postelection audits. Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s advocacy of the bill also stands out.

In her testimony to the committee Monday, Clarkson took issue with language letting the secretary of state make the “random selection of precinct districts” to be audited. As she wrote on her blog later Monday, “It should be part of the law that the sample is randomly generated.”

Another disappointment is that the law wouldn’t take effect until July 1, 2017, leaving this election year’s results unaudited.

Similarly, it wouldn’t address the issues in Clarkson’s lawsuit, which is set for a Thursday hearing in Sedgwick County District Court. Finding statistical anomalies that warranted investigation in her view, Clarkson sued to access paper tapes on which votes were recorded in the county in the 2014 election in order to check their accuracy. She has further concerns about voting machine software and security.

But as Clarkson also wrote after Monday’s hearing: “Legislators on both sides are listening. Everyone agreed that audits are doable, although perhaps costly in 2016, and a good idea in order for voters to have confidence that their votes are all counted correctly. I count this as progress.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Plan to audit elections is progress."