I am not sure how we are going to deal with VIBS write-ins yet. We'll post a follow-up once we have a better idea on this. Wonder how the vote-by-phone systems do write-ins.
Here a proposal for handling write-ins from Phil Scruggs and Steve Carrow of Soza fame. Wanted to get it out there for comment from the CA folks at least. While it comes across as a little unwieldy, it seems about as reasonable as it is going to get to me at least, and has the distinction of being the only solution that has been seriously proposed.
·
The
proposed solution is for VIBS to enter a new mode whenever a write-in choice is
selected on the ballot. This will enable the keypad so that the user can enter
in the candidate's name, as follows:
·
Letters
will be entered by pressing keys 2 through 9. The letters are mapped to the keys
in the standard order with Q assigned to the 7 key and Z assigned to the 9 key,
i.e. "ABC" is found on the 2 key and "PQRS" is found on the 7 key. As each key
is pressed the corresponding letter is spoken to the voter; for instance when
the 5 key is pressed the first time "J" is spoken, while the second time the 5
key is pressed "K" is spoken. The voter can continue to press these keys until
the desired letter is selected.
·
Special
characters will be entered by using the 1 key. Currently the only special
characters envisioned are the "space" and the period, hyphen and single quote..
Pressing the 1 key once would result in the word "space" being spoken, while
pressing the 1 key a second time would result in the word "period" being spoken,
again for hyphen and a four time for “single quote”.
·
Once the
desired letter has been selected it will be confirmed using the pound (#) key.
Upon confirmation all the characters selected up to this point are
spoken.
·
To
delete the previously confirmed character the star (*) key would be used. Upon
deletion the remaining confirmed characters will be spoken. This key may be used
multiple times in succession.
·
To
review the confirmed characters at any time use the 0 key. All the confirmed
characters will be spoken at that time.
· To exit write-in mode press the pound (#) key twice in succession. At this time all the confirmed characters will be spoken, and the voter will be asked if he/she would like to leave write-in mode. Upon confirmation the user will be put back into default mode and the write-in selection will be saved.
Ken