Below
posted at the request of Mr. Pickett who is having email
difficulties.
Jeff’s
original inquiry was triggered from our having received and tested 12 of the
pre-production Touch Screen Units on 10/9 in preparation for early voting in
Forsyth County NC. They started
early voting on 10/16. There
are 5 sights, which include the election office and 4 satellite
locations. The NC early voting
law was recently passed and this is the first North Carolina election that
no excuse early voting has been allowed and the first time for satellite
locations. Forsyth County has
220,000 registered, and over the first 2 weeks of early voting 6,500 voters
have voted early. There has
been a steady increase on a daily basis, as voters have become aware of the
no excuse early voting option.
The
county has 110 precincts and 25 ballot styles. The ballot styles are loaded into
the lap top poll books and the precinct workers have a cross reference list
that identifies the precincts by ballot style so they can create the proper
voter access card. The election
board, election officials, precinct workers and voters all have had very
positive comments concerning the process and the AccuVote Ballot
Station. However, there has
been one area of concern relating to the voting process, and that has to do
with the voter being able to remove the card after touching the cast ballot
button but before the card is erased by the software. In Forsyth County the election
officials love our pre-production touch screen ballot station. The only flaw they see is the
problem created by the non-locking card reader and they expect to see a real
solution, to that problem in the production units. They feel that if it causes problems
in 5 early voting precincts, it will really present problems on election day
in 110 precincts.
I
think a big part of the problem is the fact that it takes 8 to 10 seconds
after the voter touches the cast ballot button for the ballot station to
complete the process and tell the voter that his vote has been counted. The voter touches the cast ballot
button, assumes that he is finished, pulls his card out and leaves. The same thing happens with our
units in Gaston County. The
difference is that the card reader will not release the card until it is
finished with it, however, even in Gaston we have trouble with voters on
rare occasions managing to remove the card too early.
As
you may know, when a voter removes his voter card prior to the software
completing its cycle, a message appears on the screen indicating a
problem. Some voters actually
read the message and ask for help.
For those voters who ask for help, the poll worker goes over to their
ballot station and touches the cast ballot button on the ballot station
causing the ballot to be cancelled.
The voter must then be moved back to the head of the voter card line
where his ballot style is reconfirmed and he is reissued a new voter
card. This is an awkward
process that interrupts the normal voting process and makes our system look
bad.
Then
there is the voter who pays no attention to the message. He removes his card, return his
card, and leaves the polling place thinking that he has completed
voting. The next voter
approaches the ballot station and cannot vote until a poll worker corrects
the problem. The previous
voters ballot is canceled and the poll book and public counter are off by
one vote. In this instance the
AccuVote TS System loses credibility when its public counter does not match
the poll book. This Is similar
to what happens when the AccuVote skips a ballot causing the poll book to
show more voters than does the AccuVote’s public counter. The difference being that in one
instance you have the paper ballots that allow you to reconstruct the
election while in the other there is no recovery.
Even
though we have printed up signs that attach to the front of the voting
booths and the poll workers are reminding the voters to leave the card in
until told by the unit to remove it, we are still experiencing a
problem. Early on, someone at
I-Mark probably recognized this as a problem and corrected it with a locking
card reader. We have made a
decision to eliminate the locking card reader with no consideration or
knowledge of the consequences, and with no input from the field where we
understand the consequences.
Instead, we in the field are expected to come up with some procedure
that will minimize the damage where there should be no damage. For what its worth, you will have a
hard time trying to convince me that you can get all voters to read and
interpret a message, however, I’ll keep a partially open mind. We need to put our heads together
and come up with a real solution and then, if possible, field test it.
-----Original
Message-----
From:
owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of Frank Kaplan
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2000 7:10
PM
To:
support@gesn.com
Subject:
Re: New AVTS units - Card reader questions
It IS important that
the card locks in the reader. Voters tend to remove the card (they
think it is a "swipe" device, etc). Additionally, the Sequoia unit
locks the card, AND "marks" the card as already voted when it is reinserted
in their "poll manager/burner" unit. This is important if a voter
insists his/her vote was not recorded.
The important point
is that we should never be making these decisions without appropriate
input from the marketplace. This is a major mistake and has proven to
be the downfall of our competitors. (ie BRC Eagle, AIS
100).
The appropriate
input is vital. We must design based upon input from the
field.
This dialog should
be expanded.
From: Talbot Iredale
To: support@gesn.com
Sent: Thursday, October
26, 2000 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: New AVTS
units - Card reader questions
We are looking at
getting the card reader mounted the same way up as the current AVTS
units.
The card readers
will never lock the card but the software will display a message if the card
is removed and allow the card to be re-inserted.
Tab
----- Original
Message -----
To: Support Team
(E-mail)
Sent: Thursday, October
26, 2000 2:35 PM
Subject: New AVTS units -
Card reader questions
I worked with the
new AVTS models a couple of weeks ago in Forsythe County, NC. I have a
couple of questions concerning the Card reader on those new
models.
1) Will we have to
insert the card upside down always, or is this something that will be fixed
in the future???
2) Will the card
readers never be locking, or is there going to be some different card
readers installed in the future that do lock???
Jeff
Hintz
Global Election
Systems