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This posting is to clear up some
confusion that has been reported in regards to simultaneously touching 2
positions on the ballot station and having the vote assigned to another
candidate. I am told that this has been a long
known issue, but it was reported by sales and support while demonstrating at
Travis County, Texas. It is not a
bug or something that can be fixed by software, but rather an issue of how a
resistive touch screen operates, regardless of the manufacturer or vendor. This is a procedural issue that needs
to be explained to the support and sales staff. By definition, a resistive touch screen when touched in 2
locations will calculate the resistance and find a median point. Here is the scenario: You have a ballot with a race of 5
candidates that allows you to vote for one. Two candidates are touched simultaneously and the vote is registered
for the candidate between the 2 that were touched. This is the normal action for a resistive touch panel, but can
cause concern. This is something
that IT people like to point out and say that our system is flawed. Wrong, all
resistive touch screens react in this manner. This will happen on a R6 running CE, I can duplicate on an
R5 under NT and a R4 under Windows 98, but the OS has nothing to do with this
issue. I am sure this will be making the
rounds with our competitors. Hart
will say that is why they have the wheel, ES&S will say that is why they
have a stylus. It would be quite
interesting if we could try this on a competitors screen, given the opportunity.
A good item to be tried at IACREOT. Larry J. Dix Vice President of Operations Global Election Systems |