Dr. Poorvi Vora and her research group have developed the Athena election audit algorithm and software package, which has been integrated into Arlo, the main election audit software tool used by election officials. The Athena class of ballot polling audits decreases considerably the effort of election officials, and is likely to help make audits more popular among them. No ballot polling audits were performed for the general election, but pilot (non-binding and post-certification) ballot polling audits for Michigan and Pennsylvania are anticipated early next year, when it is hoped that Athena will be used.
Dr. Vora’s collaborators are Dr. Filip Zagórski (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland) and Neal McBurnett (independent software consultant). CS undergraduates Grant McClearn and Sarah Morin participated in all aspects of the work as well, and CS undergraduates Oliver Broadrick, Claire Furtick and Jay Grieve also played a role. The research is/was supported in part by National Science Foundation awards 2015253/1421373.