Re: New Alaska Question

[Guy Lancaster <glanca@gesn.com>]

> Can GEMS be programmed to do the following:
>

> Question 1:  Should Alaska adopt a long range fiscal plan?  YES  NO
> If the voter votes YES they can proceed to question 2, which would give them the option of picking Plan A or Plan B  with Yes or No options.  If the voter votes NO, can GEMS be programmed to reject a ballot if the voter tries to vote on question 2.  Because it makes no sense for the voter to say they don't want a long range fiscal plan
> and then turn around and vote for a plan.....
>

> I would appreciate an answer ASAP, as this is a burning legislative topic.  Our legislature did not reach a resolution about this issue during the regular session, which ended last night at midnight.  So, the governor has called them back into special session today.
> Thanks a bunch!

  One way to do approximate what is proposed is to use a party selection race on an open primary ballot.  The plan option questions would need to be defined as partisan races and essentially the YES option on the first question selects that party.  If the voter marked NO, the partisan plan questions would be ignored rather than rejected.

 Another possibility is to define the first question as a recall question.  Since a recall question applies only to the next race, all of the YES and NO options for the Plan A and B questions would have to be defined in a single candidate race.  If that race was defined as a vote for 2, then a voter could successfully vote both YES and NO
for a single plan.  Even then I doubt that GEMS could (easilly) make a single race look like 2 separate questions (the second question text in the middle of the voting positions).

 Neither of these are quite what is needed however anything else will require a significant firmware change.

                   Guy
--
Guy Lancaster <glanca@gesn.com>
Global Election Systems Inc., Victoria, B.C., Canada
Phone: (250)995-8627