RE: AccuTouch - Checking for Blank Ballot

["Ken Clark" <ken@dieboldes.com>]

> We still had 33 blank
> votes out of 1200.  That's about 2.75%, which the County
> Officials see as too high.

Can someone follow up with the typical stats for paper ballots in a single
race referendum?  This also sounds high to me, but I am curious about the
real numbers.

> To bring more attention to the voter,
> it would be better to leave the screen where you hit the Cast
> Ballot button as it was before.  Then, when they touch the Cast
> Ballot button and they did vote a blank ballot, a new screen
> comes up with the Warning and then they need to either press a
> Cast Blank Ballot button or a Review Ballot button.

Yes, this is the classic "are you sure" interface.  I think there are a
couple of things that can be done to improve the existing interface before
we go that route, but if it is still unclear at that point, we'll go with
the second screen.  For the time being until the merge is complete, we are
trying to maintain the current look-and-feel as much as possible.

First, the warning message in Lake was in the same color and font as for the
normal case.  We should make the warning more urgent.  This is customizable
by the election administrator, but we'll also improve the default.  Second,
the button still says "Cast Ballot" instead of "Cast Blank Ballot" for the
blank case.  I will also make that change.

I am mindfull of what happened in Dallas a couple of weeks ago though, so
we'll do whatever it takes to make sure the voter is doing the right thing.

Ken