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Audit Setup

A state or jurisdiction administrator of the election should set up the audit in Arlo. To set up an audit in Arlo, using Chrome or Safari as your browser, go to https://arlo.voting.works/, and follow these steps:

Enter the name of your audit in the box provided.
Select the audit type.
Click Create Audit.

See Audit Types section for information on each audit type.

Participants

In order to begin the audit, Arlo needs to know the participants. A participant (or Jurisdiction Manager) is usually a county or local jurisdiction responsible for creating their own pre-audit files and coordinating the retrieval of ballots. Prepare a participant list by creating a two column spreadsheet. The first column titled “Jurisdiction” and the second column titled “Admin Email.” The email address should be the email the user wants to use to retrieve login information. Save the spreadsheet as a .csv file.

An optional third column, titled Expected Number of Ballots can be added to the participant list. This number will help audit administrators compare the total number of ballots in the jurisdiction manager's ballot manifest with some other source of truth (ex. election night reporting, epollbook check-ins, voter history, etc.) quickly.

When the spreadsheet is ready, complete the steps in the Participants section of Arlo, as follows:

Select Browse and locate the participants .csv file created.
Select Upload File.
Select Next.

The completion of this step allows participants to begin to upload pre-audit files into Arlo. The remaining setup tasks may be completed during the upload process and before the audit begins.

The participant file can be updated as often as necessary prior to the launch of the audit.

Note: a jurisdiction can have as many jurisdiction managers as necessary to complete the required tasks.

Standardized Contests File

For ballot comparison and hybrid audits only.

A standardized contests file tells Arlo which contests to expect and their correct names. A standardized contest file is also a two column spreadsheet. The first column titled “Contest Name” and the second column titled “Jurisdictions.” The contest name column should be populated with the contest names exactly as entered in your EMS system and the jurisdiction column should list each participant that has the contest on their ballots. If all participants have the contest, type “all.” Save the spreadsheet as a .csv file.

A third column tiled "Choice Names" can be added to help standardize candidate names as well. Candidate names should be listed all in one cell like "Conine, Zach;Elliott, Bryan;Fiore, Michele;Hendrickson, Margaret;None of These Candidates" Use semi-colons to separate each name.

When the spreadsheet is ready, upload it into the Participants & Contests section of Arlo, as follows:

Select Browse and locate the standardized contests .csv file created.
Select Upload File.
Select Next.

File Upload Progress

Once the participant list is uploaded, the audit admin can monitor the file upload progress from the Audit Progress screen.

Below the map on the Audit Progress screen is a list of all jurisdictions and the various stages in the upload process they've completed.

Status: 0/2 files uploaded - jurisdiction has not logged in to Arlo and uploaded either file. 1/2 files uploaded - jurisdiction has only uploaded the ballot manifest.

Note: for ballot polling, only the ballot manifest upload is required.

2/2 files uploaded - jurisdiction has successfully uploaded their audit files. Upload failed - jurisdiction has attempted to upload one or more of the files but an error was found.

To review the files, select the Jurisdiction Name. Then select Download under the file name to review.

Ballots in Manifest is the total number of ballots the jurisdiction has in their manifest. This should match their number of ballots tabulated. If the expected ballots were entered into the Participant file, that colum will also be displayed with a third column showing the difference.

Information on the progress screen can be sorted in many different ways, as well as downloaded into a .csv file. Sort order will be maintained when the screen is refreshed.

Use Download Reported Results to download the reported results summed by jurisdiction. This is useful when comparing uploaded results with another data source.

Target Contests

The target contests are the required contests to be audited. Target contests will drive the ballot retrieval sample size and require the risk limit to be met.

For each targeted contest, you’ll enter the contest name, number of winners, number of votes allowed, the name and votes for each candidate, and total number of ballots cast (not required for batch comparison). Write-in candidates should also be included if any were awarded votes. Generally only a single "Write-In Candidate" category is needed. The total ballot cards cast should be the total number of ballots in your ballot manifest, even ballots that do not contain the contest.

If a contest has more than two choices, select Add a new candidate/choice to add more lines.

Note: for hybrid audits, the Contest Name field will be a drop down menu populated from the standardized contest file.

For batch comparison audits, the Names of Candidates/Choices will drive the required candidate headers in the contest totals by batch file. The candidate totals by batch file's headers must match the candidate names entered at this step.

The last step in setting up a targeted contest is to select which jurisdictions have that contest on the ballot.

Select Select Jurisdictions
If the contest is in all jurisdictions, use the Select all checkbox. Otherwise, select jurisdictions individually.
Select Save & Next

If more than one contest is targeted for audit, use the Add another targeted contest button to add additional targeted contests before selecting Save & Next.

Arlo populates the contests based on the standardized contest file. Simply select the contest(s) being targeted from the list.

Click Save & Next when finished.

Opportunistic Contests

An opportunistic contest is any other contest on the ballot the audit administrator would like to include. Some jurisdictions may choose to include each additional contest on the ballot while others may choose not to audit any additional contests. It’s important to note that an opportunistic contest with a lower margin of victory from the targeted contests is not likely to meet the risk limit with the targeted contest’s ballot retrieval sample size. Setup for opportunistic contests is exactly the same as targeted contests, see instructions above.

Audit Settings

In the final audit settings, your state should already be set as a default but if not, select it from the drop down. The State does populate the map in the Audit Progress Screen. Then enter the Election Name, designate the desired risk limit, and enter the random seed.

The risk limit may be designated in state statute or rule. Be sure to verify your state's requirements.

Presentation mode may be used when entering the random seed to a public audience. Select Presentation Mode and a larger box only mean for random seed entry will open. Select Set Random Seed to save it after it's entered.

Note: for ballot polling audits, you'll also select how the audit boards will enter data.

Online - audit boards enter the marks of each ballot using an internet connected device. (Recommended)

Offline - audit boards use a tally sheet to record the marks of each ballot. Tally sheet totals are entered into Arlo.

At this point the audit is ready to begin if all jurisdictions have uploaded the required files. Check the top of the screen for jurisdiction file upload progress before selecting Save & Next.

Review & Launch

After all setup screens are completed and all jurisdictions have uploaded their files, it is time to launch the audit.

First, take a moment to review all of the audit settings for accuracy. Arlo provides all of the details for final review.

Note: For ballot comparison and hybrid audits, some contest names in the CVR files may not match the standardized contest names. To match contest names to the CVR files, simply click on Standardize Contest Names.

And match the contests not found with the contest name in the CVR file.

If candidate names do not match across jurisdiction manager's CVR files, you'll be prompted to Standardize Contest Choice Names.

The sample size for each contest will be displayed on the screen.

For ballot polling audits, the BRAVO (Ballot-polling Risk-limiting Audits to Verify Outcome) sample size is the most efficient number of ballots the RLA math thinks is necessary to complete the audit. Some jurisdictions choose to use that sample size knowing there is a higher possibility of needing to do an additional round of sampling to attain the risk limit. Arlo provides options, allowing you to pick a larger sample size for the first round to create a smaller possibility of retrieving ballots in a second round.

For a hybrid audit, Arlo will display the number of ballots in the sample that have CVRs and are subject to the ballot comparison math and the number of ballots without CVRs and subject to the ballot polling math.

For a batch comparison audit, Arlo will display the sample size in number of batches.

When the margin of the contest being audited is close, Arlo may warn you that a full hand tally is necessary.

Note: a full hand tally can only be completed on one contest and as a ballot polling or batch comparison audit. If auditing multiple targeted contests, remove either the contest(s) requiring a full hand tally or the contest(s) not requiring a full hand tally to proceed. Start a new batch comparison audit to complete a full hand tally for ballot comparison or hybrid audits.

At this point, there are two options. The first is Preview Sample. This allows for a quick check to ensure the sample appears correct. A list of jurisdictions and their sample size will be displayed.

Select Launch Audit to officially begin the audit.