Local Online News Video report on West Hartford post-election audit counting <video>
Featured in the video is West Hartford Mayor, Scott Slifka.
The audit is being done for the best of reasons to protect..to make sure democracy is being done accurately.
Like CTVotersCount, the Mayor believes that the State should pay for the audits:
Disappointing that we have been asked to pay for it. We have requested of the Secretary of the State that here office pay for it.
We believe that the 10% of districts chosen to be counted are checking the system for the whole State, not just their local community. The audits are a small investment to pay to provide confidence and deterrence to the voters that our system is protected from errors and fraud. The audits cost about 10% of the cost of the paper ballots printed for each election. Last year’s Presidential post-election audit cost about $72,000 state wide. West Hartford audited three districts out of the sixty chosen statewide for $2,300.
Of course, even thought the Secretary of the State supports the audits, they are mandiated by the legislature.
Update: Looking at West Hartford’s 2010 budget, the entire budget for the Registrar of Voters is $259,662 and for the town, 212,571,688.
