On Estimating the Size and Confidence of a Statistical Audit
Name
vtp_wp54.pdf
Size
200.83 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
80f4e5c6346d6055fafa02a04104e76f
Author(s)
Rivest, Ronald L.
Popa, Raluca A.
Aslam, Javed A.
Date Issued
April 22, 2007
Publisher
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
Series/Report no.
VTP Working Paper Series;54
Abstract
We consider the problem of statistical sampling for auditing elections, and we develop a remarkably simple and easily-calculated upper bound for the sample size necessary for determining with probability at least c whether a given set of n objects contains b or more “bad” objects. While the size of the optimal sample drawn without replacement can be determined with a computer program, our goal is to derive a highly accurate and simple formula that can be used by election officials equipped with only a simple calculator.
Subjects
Statistical audit
Statistical sampling
Auditing elections
Persistent DSpace Link
