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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<b><font size="6"><br>
"AuditEngine" to be Piloted for Election Audits in Maryland<br>
<br>
</font></b><font size="4">"Our goal is to audit all elections,
contests, and ballots by independent teams instead of insiders"<br>
<br>
</font>Rockville City, MD, October 31, 2023 - Citizens Oversight,
a Delaware-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit<br>
corporation, has entered into an agreement with the Maryland State
Board of Elections and<br>
officials in Rockville City, Montgomery County, MD, to conduct a
demonstration "pilot" audit of<br>
live election data in the upcoming November 2023 Rockville City
election. This pilot aims to<br>
showcase the effectiveness of the cloud-based AuditEngine platform
for auditing elections using<br>
ballot images and other election data.<br>
<br>
The agreement involves collaboration with the State Board of
Elections and the Mayor and City<br>
Council of Rockville City, Maryland.<br>
<br>
<b>Pilot Audit Scope:</b><br>
In addition to the live November 2023 Rockville City election, the
pilot audit will include two<br>
historical elections, such as the 2022 elections in Montgomery
County and Somerset County.<br>
Citizens Oversight has developed a cloud-based ballot-image
auditing platform known as<br>
AuditEngine. It leverages the power of thousands of parallel
computers to rapidly process all<br>
ballot images and compare independent tabulations with official
results, allowing for a detailed<br>
ballot-by-ballot comparison of all contests on the ballot. Unlike
other auditing solutions,<br>
AuditEngine compares the voter-verifiable text on ballot summary
cards created by Ballot<br>
Marking Devices (BMDs) used by many voters who vote in person, to
effectively check the<br>
voter-verifiable text and "skip over" the unverifiable barcodes.<br>
<br>
<b>Key Facts:</b><br>
Citizens Oversight, Inc. is a Delaware 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization with primary offices in<br>
San Diego. They have developed the AuditEngine ballot-image
auditing application starting in<br>
2019 based on design ideas from around 2006.<br>
<br>
The pilot audit will be conducted by Citizens Oversight at no
cost. Its goal is to provide a report<br>
for the Maryland State Board of Elections to assess whether
AuditEngine qualifies for a<br>
state-wide contract to audit all elections in the state or for
municipal elections as needed. More<br>
importantly, the results of this pilot can be used by other states
and counties to evaluate the<br>
usefulness of this tabulation audit process.<br>
<br>
Ray Lutz, Executive Director of Citizens Oversight and architect
of the AuditEngine system,<br>
expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration with Maryland,
stating, "We are happy to be able<br>
to work with officials in the state of Maryland and particularly
in Rockville City, to test both our<br>
software platform as well as the logistics of cooperation. The
audit is based on a review of<br>
digital ballot images to create an independent tabulation and then
comparison with cast-vote<br>
records on a ballot-by-ballot basis. Our case studies in Florida,
Georgia, Wisconsin, and New<br>
Jersey support our confidence that AuditEngine will provide an
extremely robust audit of the<br>
counties in Maryland."<br>
<br>
AuditEngine operates securely in a Virginia datacenter, authorized
to utilize up to 10,000 virtual<br>
machines in parallel to efficiently review all ballots by
inspecting the images created by ballot<br>
scanners during the initial scan.<br>
<br>
AuditEngine does not directly communicate with the isolated
"air-gapped" computers in election<br>
offices and cannot modify official election data. AuditEngine
provides detailed reports pointing<br>
out any discrepancies, and it can also provide transparency to
voters who wish to review the<br>
details of the audit.<br>
<br>
Lutz added, "We've discovered fascinating issues in almost all
audits we have performed,<br>
usually regarding quirks in the election system, and we continue
to be impressed by the overall<br>
quality of work done by election offices even though sometimes
there is a need to work around<br>
limitations in the voting systems. We find it an honor to work
with the State of Maryland in this<br>
pilot project."<br>
<br>
The pilot audit will be mainly of interest to districts outside
Maryland for the 2024 election<br>
season because Maryland has already granted the contract for
2024-2025 audits in Maryland to<br>
their prior vendor, as announced at the recent Sept. 28 Maryland
State Board of Elections<br>
meeting.<br>
<br>
"We are hoping Maryland will conduct a fair bidding process for
future audits, particularly any<br>
municipal elections in Maryland and in other states, as our
solution is competitively priced and<br>
we offer auditing of all BMD ballots, while our competition does
not.<br>
<br>
"We regard Maryland as the absolute leader in providing clean data
suitable for nearly fully<br>
automated audits ballot images to build confidence in the
outcome."<br>
<br>
MEDIA ADVISORY<br>
Initial results will be provided within 24 hours after receiving
the ballot images, and then Cast<br>
Vote Records will be provided for our detailed comparison. After
the audit is completed and the<br>
narrative report drafted, a meeting will be held in Rockville City
to review the results of the audit<br>
and solicit feedback from election officials and the public. The
exact time and place to be<br>
announced.<br>
<br>
For media inquiries and further information, please contact:<br>
Media Contact: Ray Lutz, Executive Director<br>
email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:support@citizensoversight.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">support@citizensoversight.org</a><br>
619-440-3646<br>
<br>
About Citizens' Oversight:<br>
Citizens' Oversight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
committed to enhancing the integrity<br>
and transparency of the electoral process through innovative
auditing solutions.<br>
<br>
References:<br>
1. "Case Study Report: 2020 Election Ballot Image Audits in
Collier County, Volusia County, and<br>
St. Lucie County Florida" -- <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://copswiki.org/Common/M1970" moz-do-not-send="true">https://copswiki.org/Common/M1970</a><br>
2. "Dual Tabulation Issue in ES&S Voting Equipment" -- <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://copswiki.org/Common/M1989/" moz-do-not-send="true">https://copswiki.org/Common/M1989/</a><br>
3. "2020 General Election Audit Reports for Bartow GA, Fulton GA
and Dane WI" --<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://copswiki.org/Common/M1986" moz-do-not-send="true">https://copswiki.org/Common/M1986</a><br>
4. NJ -- Three County 2022 Audit Narrative Report -- In this
report, we provide details of many<br>
issues found by AuditEngine as the counties of Monmouth and Mercer
were phasing in new<br>
voting systems.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HhAfIGlhEQUIHpyChl0uJORUmymGAZq9thdPMbKuGXs"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HhAfIGlhEQUIHpyChl0uJORUmymGAZq9thdPMbKuGXs</a><br>
/edit?usp=sharing<br>
<br>
Ray Lutz, Executive Director<br>
CitizensOversight, Inc.<br>
771 Jamacha Rd 148<br>
El Cajon, CA 92019<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:support@citizensoversight.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">support@citizensoversight.org</a><br>
619-440-3646<br>
<br>
--
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-------
Ray Lutz
Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPs)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.citizensoversight.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.citizensoversight.org</a>
619-820-5321</pre>
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