Efficiently Auditing Multi-Level Elections
نویسندگان
چکیده
In a multi-level election, voters are divided into groups, an election is held within each group, and some deterministic procedure is used to combine the group results to determine the overall election result. Examples of multi-level elections include U.S. presidential elections and some parliamentary elections (such as those with regional groupings of voters). The results of such an election can hinge on a few votes in one group, while being insensitive to large shifts within other groups. These disparities create opportunities to focus election integrity efforts in the places where they have the highest leverage. We consider how to improve the efficiency of post-election audits, such as those that compare paper ballots to corresponding electronic records, in multi-level elections. We evaluate our proposed solutions using data from past elections.
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