Reply #38: you were?

[OnTheOtherHand]

Because what you wrote was, "What do you think it would take to get a a >90% confidence in one of the state's state-wide elections where the margin is, say, 2%?" I never did establish what you meant by "the state[]," but I thought at least "state-wide" was clear enough.

Certainly 3% audits can easily fail to detect some outcome-changing errors in small contests -- although if such errors are common, some of them will be detected. If we want more rigorous audits, we can pay more for them. Or not. People actually get to discuss the issue and choose. At least, that's how it ought to work. Arguing about it on DU doesn't make much difference, obviously.