Reply #1: well, VoteTrustUSA published basically the same idea in August

[OnTheOtherHand]

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1664&Itemid=26

In a newly released paper, "Random Auditing of E-Voting Systems: How Much is Enough?", Howard Stanislevic argues that "Auditing protocols proposed and implemented at the federal and state levels that rely on small-percentage random sampling without replacement are unlikely to detect miscounts sufficient to change the outcome of Congressional or smaller local races, even if such races initially appear to be decided by relatively wide margins."

As far as I can figure out, Dopp and Stanislevic were working on basically the same idea separately.

That aside, any precincts people get to audit after the election, it's gravy. I agree with you about poll-watching, etc.