Post-special election audit comes up clean
About a dozen Lake County Board of Elections and Registration employees helped Voting System Technical Oversight Program officials conduct a post-election audit of the 2025 special election results.
The election office volunteered for a post-election audit of its 2025 special school board elections held May 6 for Crown Point and Hobart school referendums, both of which passed. Ultimately, the ballots audited matched the tabulated election results.
During the audit, the employees aimed for a 1% risk limit, which results in a 99% confidence level in the election results, said Matt Housley, VSTOP elections system audit specialist.
'We are going to be sampling and inspecting ballots, and we're going to be calculating whether the paper record matches the digital record. We're going to do that until the sample can give us confidence that the election result was correctly tabulated,' Housley said.
A good analogy for the post-election audit process, Housley said, has been cooking soup.
When cooking soup, the chef doesn't eat the whole pot to determine if the soup tastes good, Housley said. Instead, the chef takes a couple spoonfuls and adds to the recipe as needed with each taste, he said.
'That's exactly what we're going to be doing in a post-election audit. We take a sample of ballots. We make sure that sample of ballots matches up correctly, and as long as they match up correctly then we can infer that the entire election was correctly tabulated,' Housley said.
Crown Point will use its referendum money to underscore its ability to hire and retain teachers with a competitive salary. Crown Point will also use the funding for academic programs, safety initiatives and to manage class sizes.
For Hobart, the passage meant bus transportation could continue for another eight years.
Hobart's referendum will raise about $21.6 million over the eight-year period and Crown Point's will raise $67.2 million over the same period.
During the post-election audit, the VSTOP employees entered election information into the Stark Audit Tool, which was used to determine the amount of ballots needed to sample.
Then, the election employees rolled a dice to come up with a random 20-digit seed number. The seed number allows for audits to be random and different every time, Housley said.
The VSTOP officials put the seed number into the Stark Audit tool, which then generated a list of which ballots the employees should audit.
For the two special elections, the employees had to audit 53 ballots. To be safe, Housley pulled 55 ballots to be audited.
The election employees pulled the ballots the system generated for audit. Then, they handrolled through the voter-verified paper audit trail, which leaves a paper trail of each ballot cast at a voting machine, looking for the specific ballots to ensure the ballot matched what was tabulated.
No voter information was on the ballots, said Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman.
After about an hour, all the ballots matched what was recorded during the election. The audit came back with 100% accuracy, and was determined accurate after 50 ballots were audited.
Fajman said the county volunteered to be audited because there were few special elections in 2025 and it allowed staff members to become familiar with the process, which in turn will help them answer voter questions in future elections.
The county volunteered to be audited once before — in the 2022 general election — which was important to show voters transparency and 'how accurate the system was,' Fajman said.
Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Assistant Director Jessica Messler, who is new to the office, said she enjoyed participating in the audit because it showed the accountability of the system.
Rolling the dice to come up with the seed number allows for the audit to be random, Fajman said. After the audit was complete, Housley went into the system and changed the seed number by one digit and the system called for different ballots to be audited.
'This time, it was exciting because we already knew a little bit about it,' Fajman said. 'In the audit, we're seeing that what that person voted and selected is actually what was tabulated.'
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Yahoo
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Post-special election audit comes up clean
About a dozen Lake County Board of Elections and Registration employees helped Voting System Technical Oversight Program officials conduct a post-election audit of the 2025 special election results. The election office volunteered for a post-election audit of its 2025 special school board elections held May 6 for Crown Point and Hobart school referendums, both of which passed. Ultimately, the ballots audited matched the tabulated election results. During the audit, the employees aimed for a 1% risk limit, which results in a 99% confidence level in the election results, said Matt Housley, VSTOP elections system audit specialist. 'We are going to be sampling and inspecting ballots, and we're going to be calculating whether the paper record matches the digital record. We're going to do that until the sample can give us confidence that the election result was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. A good analogy for the post-election audit process, Housley said, has been cooking soup. When cooking soup, the chef doesn't eat the whole pot to determine if the soup tastes good, Housley said. Instead, the chef takes a couple spoonfuls and adds to the recipe as needed with each taste, he said. 'That's exactly what we're going to be doing in a post-election audit. We take a sample of ballots. We make sure that sample of ballots matches up correctly, and as long as they match up correctly then we can infer that the entire election was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. Crown Point will use its referendum money to underscore its ability to hire and retain teachers with a competitive salary. Crown Point will also use the funding for academic programs, safety initiatives and to manage class sizes. For Hobart, the passage meant bus transportation could continue for another eight years. Hobart's referendum will raise about $21.6 million over the eight-year period and Crown Point's will raise $67.2 million over the same period. During the post-election audit, the VSTOP employees entered election information into the Stark Audit Tool, which was used to determine the amount of ballots needed to sample. Then, the election employees rolled a dice to come up with a random 20-digit seed number. The seed number allows for audits to be random and different every time, Housley said. The VSTOP officials put the seed number into the Stark Audit tool, which then generated a list of which ballots the employees should audit. For the two special elections, the employees had to audit 53 ballots. To be safe, Housley pulled 55 ballots to be audited. The election employees pulled the ballots the system generated for audit. Then, they handrolled through the voter-verified paper audit trail, which leaves a paper trail of each ballot cast at a voting machine, looking for the specific ballots to ensure the ballot matched what was tabulated. No voter information was on the ballots, said Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman. After about an hour, all the ballots matched what was recorded during the election. The audit came back with 100% accuracy, and was determined accurate after 50 ballots were audited. Fajman said the county volunteered to be audited because there were few special elections in 2025 and it allowed staff members to become familiar with the process, which in turn will help them answer voter questions in future elections. The county volunteered to be audited once before — in the 2022 general election — which was important to show voters transparency and 'how accurate the system was,' Fajman said. Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Assistant Director Jessica Messler, who is new to the office, said she enjoyed participating in the audit because it showed the accountability of the system. Rolling the dice to come up with the seed number allows for the audit to be random, Fajman said. After the audit was complete, Housley went into the system and changed the seed number by one digit and the system called for different ballots to be audited. 'This time, it was exciting because we already knew a little bit about it,' Fajman said. 'In the audit, we're seeing that what that person voted and selected is actually what was tabulated.' akukulka@
Chicago Tribune
28-05-2025
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Post-special election audit comes up clean
About a dozen Lake County Board of Elections and Registration employees helped Voting System Technical Oversight Program officials conduct a post-election audit of the 2025 special election results. The election office volunteered for a post-election audit of its 2025 special school board elections held May 6 for Crown Point and Hobart school referendums, both of which passed. Ultimately, the ballots audited matched the tabulated election results. During the audit, the employees aimed for a 1% risk limit, which results in a 99% confidence level in the election results, said Matt Housley, VSTOP elections system audit specialist. 'We are going to be sampling and inspecting ballots, and we're going to be calculating whether the paper record matches the digital record. We're going to do that until the sample can give us confidence that the election result was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. A good analogy for the post-election audit process, Housley said, has been cooking soup. When cooking soup, the chef doesn't eat the whole pot to determine if the soup tastes good, Housley said. Instead, the chef takes a couple spoonfuls and adds to the recipe as needed with each taste, he said. 'That's exactly what we're going to be doing in a post-election audit. We take a sample of ballots. We make sure that sample of ballots matches up correctly, and as long as they match up correctly then we can infer that the entire election was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. Crown Point will use its referendum money to underscore its ability to hire and retain teachers with a competitive salary. Crown Point will also use the funding for academic programs, safety initiatives and to manage class sizes. For Hobart, the passage meant bus transportation could continue for another eight years. Hobart's referendum will raise about $21.6 million over the eight-year period and Crown Point's will raise $67.2 million over the same period. During the post-election audit, the VSTOP employees entered election information into the Stark Audit Tool, which was used to determine the amount of ballots needed to sample. Then, the election employees rolled a dice to come up with a random 20-digit seed number. The seed number allows for audits to be random and different every time, Housley said. The VSTOP officials put the seed number into the Stark Audit tool, which then generated a list of which ballots the employees should audit. For the two special elections, the employees had to audit 53 ballots. To be safe, Housley pulled 55 ballots to be audited. The election employees pulled the ballots the system generated for audit. Then, they handrolled through the voter-verified paper audit trail, which leaves a paper trail of each ballot cast at a voting machine, looking for the specific ballots to ensure the ballot matched what was tabulated. No voter information was on the ballots, said Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman. After about an hour, all the ballots matched what was recorded during the election. The audit came back with 100% accuracy, and was determined accurate after 50 ballots were audited. Fajman said the county volunteered to be audited because there were few special elections in 2025 and it allowed staff members to become familiar with the process, which in turn will help them answer voter questions in future elections. The county volunteered to be audited once before — in the 2022 general election — which was important to show voters transparency and 'how accurate the system was,' Fajman said. Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Assistant Director Jessica Messler, who is new to the office, said she enjoyed participating in the audit because it showed the accountability of the system. Rolling the dice to come up with the seed number allows for the audit to be random, Fajman said. After the audit was complete, Housley went into the system and changed the seed number by one digit and the system called for different ballots to be audited. 'This time, it was exciting because we already knew a little bit about it,' Fajman said. 'In the audit, we're seeing that what that person voted and selected is actually what was tabulated.'
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26-03-2025
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Lake County elections public records request cited as reason for oath of ballot bill
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