Assessing the accuracy of the Australian Senate count: Key steps for a rigorous and transparent audit

TL;DR

This paper discusses principles and methods for auditing the Australian Senate ballot scanning process to ensure accuracy, transparency, and rigor, including statistical approaches and recent election data analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for auditing Senate ballot digitisation, combining technical details with statistical methods and recent election data analysis.

Findings

Analysis of Senate preference data from 2022 Australian election

Proposed statistical methods for audit accuracy

Guidelines for transparent and rigorous ballot auditing

Abstract

This paper explains the main principles and some of the technical details for auditing the scanning and digitisation of the Australian Senate ballot papers. We give a short summary of the motivation for auditing paper ballots, explain the necessary supporting steps for a rigorous and transparent audit, and suggest some statistical methods that would be appropriate for the Australian Senate. 22 June 2022 Update: The update includes analysis of Senate preference data from the 2022 Australian election.