ACT Legislative Assembly Election 2020 – Scanning Audit
Background
Elections ACT has used scanning to identify preferences shown on every formal ballot paper since
the 2008 ACT Legislative Assembly election. The process uses intel igent character recognition (ICR)
software used to identify preferences shown on every formal paper ballot. Any preferences that
could not be identified by the software or that did not meet business rules were verified by electoral
officials. Al informal bal ots continued to be manually rechecked. Scrutineers were entitled to
observe the process and seek rulings on interpretations placed on bal ot papers.
Overview
After each ACT Legislative Assembly election, Elections ACT performs an audit of scanned images
to verify that the preferences on the bal ot paper match the preferences recorded by the scanning
system through the optical character recognition and verification process. Once the bal ot papers
for a polling place have completed the ballot paper scanning scrutiny process the recorded
preferences are uploaded to the electronic voting and counting system for a final distribution to
achieve the election result.
In late 2020/early 2021, Elections ACT performed an audit of 3,000 randomly selected bal ot
papers to determine if any discrepancies between the bal ot paper images and preferences
recorded could be identified. The results of the audit are presented below.
Results
Electorate: Brindabel a
Number of ballot papers audited: 600
Number of discrepancies: 0
Electorate: Ginninderra
Number of ballot papers audited: 600
Number of discrepancies: 0
Electorate: Kurrajong
Number of ballot papers audited: 600
Number of discrepancies: 0
Electorate: Murrumbidgee
Number of ballot papers audited: 600
Number of discrepancies: 0
Electorate: Yerrabi
Number of ballot papers audited: 600
Number of discrepancies: 0
A report is attached providing specific details for the ballots audited, including the ballot paper
number audited within a particular batch.
Audit of scanned images - 2020 ACTLA election
Page 1
Document Outline
