Dear John,
I’m happy to report that Pennsylvania will be conducting a risk-limiting audit of November’s election! This is a major victory for secure elections for Pennsylvania’s 8.8 million registered voters, and a big reason to celebrate Verified Voting’s work moving states toward best-practice audits.
Our team has long advocated for risk-limiting audits (RLAs) — a transparent, efficient, and cost-effective way for election officials to check the reported election results before the results are certified. RLAs give strong evidence to support the final election outcome and give the public confidence that their votes count.
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The Pennsylvania Department of State’s RLA directive is the result of years of hard work alongside bipartisan stakeholders including election officials, legislators, and election security advocates. Together, we:
- Successfully advocated for the passage of the election reform package that gave counties the resources needed to replace insecure voting systems with paper-based systems that make risk-limiting audits possible
- Traveled around the state assisting election officials with a risk-limiting audit pilot of the 2020 presidential election—and provided support for two subsequent pilots
- Testified in support of risk-limiting audits and the election officials who make them happen, amidst widespread disinformation about the 2020 election
- Advised state officials on best practices for true post-election audits via our participation on the state’s Post-Election Audit Workgroup, which published their most recent report in September
Our progress for Pennsylvania's voters is a reason to celebrate, but we still have more work to do. We’ll continue to assist election officials across the map and advocate for robust post-election audit legislation. Right now, only a handful of states conduct risk-limiting audits — please consider a donation to support our work today.
With thanks,
Mark Lindeman, Policy & Strategy Director
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