RE: Notes on the AVTS 3-10-x interface

["Ken Clark" <ken@gesn.com>]

> I just
> have some comments:

Thanks Rob.  We really need feedback like this.

> 1) Can the
> AVTS automatically print reports like the AVOS (both the zero
> report and the
> end election summary total report)?

Sounds reasonable.  The old black units do not have printers, but that
shouldn't be a problem.  The InstallShield should have the ability to choose
initial registry settings, and set the printer to NULL for those units.

Not all jurisdictions may want this though, which leads to the next point.

> I understand that there are different
> options and settings which can be selected for reporting.  Can
> these options
> be selected in GEMS in the AVTS options dialogue window?

We have a very nice feature on the AccuVote for dealing with this:
Accu-Basic.  Unfortunately, the AccuVote-TS doesn't speak Accu-Basic, and
probably never will.

I am not really sure how to deal with this one.  The right way to do it is
with Accu-Basic.  We could probably bang out a dialog with a few checkboxes
in a couple of days though, and this would probably be worth while.
Consider it on the RCR list.  The options I can think of are:

o Print report on startup
o Print report on end counting
o Print Summary or Detail report

If people can think of other options that would otherwise be handled by
Accu-Basic, let us know.  Understand though that this option list becomes
unwieldy very quickly (print reports like customer X wants it, etc).  The
original VTS worked that way, and that is the reason Accu-Basic was invented
in the first place.

> 2) Shutdown.  The AVTS software, during shutdown does not shut Windows 98
> down.  The shutdown button only closes the Ballot Station software.  The
> pollworkers must select the start button, select shutdown and select the
> shutdown method, before the AVTS unit can be turned off.

This sounds like a bug.  Are other people seeing this (Gaston)?

> 3) In which case,
> it would be
> convienent to have the ability to program a diskette to be in
> election mode
> and not have to manually bring up every AVTS machine and manually set for
> election.

Consider it one of the options.  I don't think it would be prudent implement
this until some alternate L&A method is in place though.

Ken