Electoral fraud audit

An electoral fraud audit is a forensic audit to detect electoral fraud.

On November 13, 2004, blackboxvoting.org described such an audit as follows:

"What is a fraud audit?

A fraud audit is not the same as a recount. It does not presume innocence. It does not make the assumption that if there is an anomaly with a benign explanation, it's okay to stop investigating. Any embezzler (or vote manipulator) worth his salt will build in an explanation that makes it sound like it could be an honest mistake, or a "glitch." Any investigator worth his salt knows you have to look deeper.

Forensic auditing begins with indicators, like oddball statistics, mismatched records, or secretive, obstructive behavior. The next step is to obtain diagnostic documents. Later steps may include pulling all the ballots for hand recounts." - Bev Harris.

Bev Harris, an investigative writer, claims that her methods for isolating financial fraud have resulted in convictions or settlements from embezzlers and financial fraudsters. She, Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne were in Florida, at the time of this release to investigate in particular the Diebold counties to determine if the Diebold margin in Florida warrants sufficient detailed examination of the internal audit log of Diebold voting machines used in Florida's counties, and a few of Ohio's.

Harris says that despite reports "including one from VerifiedVoting.org, telling you there is no reason to believe suspicions of fraud in the 2004 election. In fact, no member of the media nor any organization has done any real forensic auditing to determine whether there was or was not fraud. Trust in our electoral process is critical to our democracy. We need the right kind of investigation into anomalies, using appropriate methods."

""Feel-good" statements, dismissive of real concerns into voting integrity, are not responsible. The truth is what it is. We might see something very uncomfortable unfold during these investigations. Or, maybe not. It's still too early to tell, but the evidence is mounting."