This is big – this is really big. Ask a corporate auditor.
In January a group of election integrity experts from across the country got together and identified the processes, subprocesses and controls that should be in place in US Elections in order for the elections to be fair and transparent. This effort identified 13 processes, 100 subprocesses and 520 controls related to the election process.
The controls were then compared to what is really going on and it was determined that nearly two-thirds of all the controls that should be in place, are NOT in place. This is horrible.
The results of the research and work to identify and validate the activities that should be in progress in US elections showed that of the 520 controls identified, only 36% of all controls are actually in place.
The significance of this is that in the financial reporting process for US companies, all controls must be in place and working properly for the external auditor to sign off on the financials. Multinational companies can have up to 1,000 controls or more that are tested annually related to the financial reporting process and all have to be working properly for the financials to be signed off on.
The data obtained in this effort was used to develop two proposed bills in Florida for the legislature to take up and pass to ensure election integrity in the state. The bills would make it so that 90% of the controls in the election process would be in place.
This team reviewed the security risks for a typical county in the state and identified hundreds of security control risks. This is depicted in the chart below.
Unfortunately, the Florida legislature never took up these bills.
After the 2020 Election we learned that law enforcement, the courts and the legislatures were not going to help Americans overcome a stolen election. If you are not ahead when the counting stops you cannot win even with piles of evidence of election fraud.
Knowing this, this group of professionals has begun an effort to find solutions to key election issues so that corrupt actors cannot steal the 2024 election.
The processes, subprocesses and controls included and inventoried in the election process were reviewed and weighted based on impact. From this analysis the following results were obtained.
The top processes to focus on based on an initial review were vote by mail process, system security, vote in person, effective governance, and physical security. These are noted below.
These results were not too surprising. The mail-in voting process has numerous controls and combined rated as the most significant process to address of all election processes. System security was almost non-existent in the 2020 election with the Halderman report in Georgia stating this. Vote in person is rated third and this makes sense too especially after the mess all Americans witnessed in the 2022 elections in Arizona where ballots were jammed in machines and thrown about. Effective governance is important and includes the selection of election personnel, legislation, the secretary of state operations and more. Rated fifth is the physical security of the election process. Ballots and related material needs to be protected and chain of custody in place for all material activities involved in the election process.
The election subprocesses were also identified and rated. The results of the 100 subprocesses were as follows. These results too were not unexpected. Chain of custody activities, signature validation, vote-by-mail tabulation, flash drives, and system security are all very important.
The top key controls identified were as follows. These too are not too surprising to those who have reviewed the election processes across the nation. Chain of custody relates to protection of information throughout the election process preventing fraudulent information from being entered into the process. Identification is ensuring that who the voters say they are is validated. Audit refers to ensuring the systems and processes in the election system are validated. All systems should be tested and certified before any election takes place and oversight of the election process should always be in place. This includes experienced and knowledgeable supervisors and boards.
