Title: ClipAudit: A Simple Risk-Limiting Post-Election Audit,
Abstract: We propose a simple risk-limiting audit for elections, ClipAudit. To
determine whether candidate A (the reported winner) actually beat candidate B
in a plurality election, ClipAudit draws ballots at random, without
replacement, until either all cast ballots have been drawn, or until \[ a - b
\ge \beta \sqrt{a+b}
\] where $a$ is the number of ballots in the sample for the reported winner
A, and $b$ is the number of ballots in the sample for opponent B, and where
$\beta$ is a constant determined a priori as a function of the number $n$ of
ballots cast and the risk-limit $\alpha$. ClipAudit doesn't depend on the
unofficial margin (as does Bravo). We show how to extend ClipAudit to contests
with multiple winners or losers, or to multiple contests.