Thanks
Tab.
Right. The GEMS theory is that we would add any reasonable
layout options to handle whatever cases we came across. GEMS also allows
movement of races outside of the column paradigm (by quarter inch), which helps
a lot. This falls down in the face of this "Grid Layout" however
since it doesn't look (to me) like any reasonable race options are going to lay
out the ballot automatically.
Right again. From Frank's email it looks like many of the
New England states want this, and Don Vopalenski has put the requirement on the
table.
I thought about this, and should have brought it up in the
original mail. I think the GEMS rotation design is sound (in fact I think
it is a major unique feature of GEMS) and is outside the manual layout
issue. In GEMS, rotation is independent of layout. This would remain
the case for manual layout. We may *also* need to support manual rotation,
but that would entail entering in the rotation number for the race for a given
baseunit-ballot. Manual layout would be done using "rotation 0"
(like it is done, albeit with less flexibility,
now).
I think the devil is in the details here. How, exactly, are
candidates "moved within the race rectangle"? What happens to
the candidates after they have been moved if the race rectangle is
resized? This is currently well defined in GEMS, but would not be if we
allow the candidates to move freely.
Another possibility is to just attach "tags" to the
ovals (ie the candidate label) and allow them to be freely dragged around the a
card, independent of race boxes. The ballots would not be layed out and
then adjusted, but rather positioned manually from the start. I think this
better matches the fact that the artwork is being typeset manually (and
independently) by the printer. It sidesteps the "overlapping race
box" issue you bring up also. I have not really thought through all
the implications of this solution however.
Does
anyone know how ES&S does this? I get the impression that they and
these "SAT Test" scanning systems can enter oval positions based on
the typeset artwork, but I don't know the details (and can't guess
either).
Ken
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