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landscape and party-row layout on AVTS
Posted on behalf of
Greg Forsythe, LHS, and others.
States which do
"full face" aka "grid" aka "party-row" ballot layout would like this feature
incorporated into the AVTS. Support for landscape party-row paper layout
was added to GEMS in early 2000.
The R6 AVTS hardware
allows for landscape ballots: users can rotate the screen by 90
degrees to the right and lock into landscape mode. This feature is to my
knowledge unique to our system. Software support for landscape mode is in
the works and should be complete this year.
Party-row
layout is a bit more complicated. We can certainly develop
our software to layout the ballot in any way we like, but we are ultimately
constrained by the number of pixels on the screen. A typical 8x11 paper
party-row ballot would appear completely illegible on the touch screen due to
lack of resolution. Most (all?) states that require party-row ballots also
require that all parties, and sometimes even that all races, appear on the same
"page". This will not work on the touch screen. We will attempt to
develop a layout that adheres to the spirit of party-row layout, but some
corners will have to be cut. There is currently no schedule for completion
of this project.
As a final note, the
whole motivation for party-row ballot layout is based on antiquated voting
hardware that these very states are trying to replace. States who refuse
to change their voting laws to match the strengths and weaknesses of these
new systems will ultimately be left behind.
Ken