[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

Re: Pollbook Function

I agree that the cirrent pollbook is too complicated for most poll workers and can attest to it personally.  Since many counties do not have employees working Early Voting, it is also too difficult for Early Voting workers (same as poll workers and normally at least 75 years of age).

The only problem I have with the integrated booth approach is the fact that many states will need to comply to ADA accessibility standards so most of the competitors booths are not a good place to start in booth design.  Texas is the first in mandating these standards for the handicapped and we have used a regular 6 foot table with one unit and a table top secrecy booth (the regulare units are three to a table).  This may not be the best solution but it beats the heck out of the self contained booths of some of our competitors.  Consequently, if we design an integrated booth concept, it must address all the ADA requirements that will be sweeping the other states shortly!

I totally agree with the testing procedures and hardware to test hundreds/thousands of units in a timely manner.  Also, I agree that we need input from the field personnel that have run these elections to insure that we as a company do not miss some important issues in this new design that will bite us all in the butt later!

Steve Knecht wrote:

  After several discussions with Tab, Frank and Deborah the pollbook issue remains problematic.  Frank, Deborah, and I believe that a laptop with a card burner is NOT a viable option for pollworkers.  It is cumbersome and generally is too complicated for most pollworkers.  It may work fine in an early voting environment, but in the precinct we need something much simpler.  In early voting we can train staff. In the precinct, we need a turn on, turn off card burner unit (maybe it has its own pcmcia card so it knows what styles it can burn).  Maybe the laptop pollbook unit is in CE and will boot directly into the application and effectively do what I'm suggesting.  I don't know. The AccuVote-TS is one piece of our new voting system.  The system must include:
  • smart card burner (easy to use pollbook application)
  • integrated booth
  • testing procedures and hardware to test hundreds or thousands of units.
I would like to see some folks in development, management, and field sales re-look at these issues to insure that all the requirements of this new product are being considered.