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Information about Voting Machine

Voting machines are the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment (including software, firmware, and documentation required to program control, and support equipment), that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information. The first voting machines where mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use electronic voting machines.

A voting system includes the practices and associated documentation used to identify system components and versions of such components; to test the system during its development and maintenance; to maintain records of system errors or defects; to determine specific changes made after initial certification; and to make available any materials to the voter (such as notices, instructions, forms, or paper ballots).

Traditionally, a voting machine has been defined by the mechanism the system uses to cast votes and further categorized by the location where the system tabulates the votes.

Voting machines have different usability, security, efficiency and accuracy. Certain systems may be more or less accessible to all voters, or not accessible to those voters with certain types of disabilities. They can also have an effect on the public's ability to oversee elections.

Voting systems recording technologies

Document ballot voting system

A document ballot voting system records votes, counts votes, and produces a tabulation of the vote count from votes cast on paper cards or sheets. A document ballot voting system can allow for manual or electronic tabulation.

Manually marked and tabulated paper ballots

The first use of paper ballots to conduct an election appears to have been in Rome in 139 BCE, and the first use of paper ballots in the United States was in 1629 to select a pastor for the Salem Church.[1]

Punch card

Enlarge picture
The Votomatic vote recorder, a punch card voting machine originally developed in the mid 1960s.
Punchcard systems employ a card (or cards) and a small clipboard-sized device for recording votes. Voters punch holes in the cards (with a supplied punch device) opposite their candidate or ballot issue choice. After voting, the voter may place the ballot in a ballot box, or the ballot may be fed into a computer vote tabulating device at the precinct.

In the 1996 Presidential election, some variation of the punchcard system was used by 37.3% of registered voters in the United States.[2]

Optical scan (Marksense)

An optical scan, or marksense voting system allows a voter to record votes by making marks directly on the ballot, usually in voting response locations.

With electronic input device

A paper-based system may allow for the voter's selections to be indicated by marks made on a paper ballot by an electronic input device.
Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail
Some traditionally non-document ballot voting systems may print a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to serve as a document (ballot) for each vote.
Electronic Ballot Marker
The Electronic Ballot Marker (EBM) is categorized as any such input device that does not independently record, store, or tabulate the voter selections.

Non-document ballot voting system

Direct-recording voting system

Commonly used in the United States until the 1990s (and commonly known as lever machines), direct recording voting systems are mechanical systems to tabulate votes. Commonly, a voter enters the machine and pulls a lever to close the curtain, thus unlocking the voting levers. The voter then makes his or her selection from a list of switches denoting the appropriate candidates or measures. The machine is configured to prevent overvotes by locking out other candidates when one candidate's switch is flipped. When the voter is finished, a lever is pulled which opens the curtain and increments the appropriate counters for each candidate and measure. The results are then hand written by the precinct officer at the conclusion of voting. New York is the only state that still permits the use of these machines, allowing its counties time to explore alternatives.[3]

Direct-recording electronic voting system

The successor to direct recording voting machines, a DRE voting machine|direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting system records votes by means of an electronic display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be activated by the voter; that processes voter selections by means of a computer program; and that records that processed voting data in memory components. It produces a tabulation of the voting data that is stored in a removable memory component and may also provide printed renditions of the data. The system may further provide a means for transmitting the processed vote data to a central location in individual or accumulated forms for consolidating and reporting results from precincts at a central location. DRE systems additionally can produce a paper ballot printout that can be verified by the voter before they cast their ballot.

Public network direct-recording electronic voting system

A public network DRE voting system is an election system that uses electronic ballots and transmits vote data from the polling place to another location over a public network. Vote data may be transmitted as individual ballots as they are cast, periodically as batches of ballots throughout the election day, or as one batch at the close of voting. <gallery perrow="3"> Image:Winvote arlington.jpg|The Advanced Voting Solutions WINvote voting machine in Arlington County, Virginia. Image:MDvotingmachine.jpg|A voting machines used in Bladensburg, Maryland 2004. Image:Urna eletrônica.jpeg|A Brazilian voting machine Image:IVotronic img 3452.jpg|Voting machine to be used in Issy-les-Moulineaux during the 2007 French presidential election Image:Shouptronic.jpg|Similar to lever voting machines, the electromechanical Shouptronic voting machine. Image:Standardvotingmachine.jpg|A voting machine designed by Alfred J. Gillespie and marketed by the Standard Voting Machine Company of Rochester, New York from the late 1890s. </gallery>

Voting system tabulation technologies

Most voting systems (whether document ballot or non-document ballot) can be tabulated either at the place of voting or in another location. In this case "precinct" is the place of voting.

Precinct-count voting system

A precinct-count voting system is a voting system that tabulates ballots at the polling place. Generally, systems that hand count the ballots will tabulate the ballots only after the close of polling. Other voting systems typically tabulate the ballots as they are cast. In all systems, the vote totals are made public only after the close of polling. For DREs and some paper-based systems these systems provide electronic storage of the vote count and may transmit results to a central location over public telecommunication networks. This system allows for voters to be notified of voting errors such as over voting and can prevent residual votes.

Central count voting system

A central count voting system is a voting system that tabulates ballots from multiple precincts at a central location. Voted ballots are typically placed into secure storage at the polling place. Stored ballots are transported or transmitted to a central counting location. The system produces a printed report of the vote count, and may produce a report stored on electronic media.

See also

References

External links

Election Administration

Informational

Research


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An Independent Testing Authority (ITA) is a laboratory certified by the United States-based National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to test voting systems to the Voting System Standards (VSS) or the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) in the process of
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End-to-end auditable (E2E) systems are a form of Independent Verification. E2E systems usually use cryptography to store copies of voted ballots. These systems may provide the voter with receipts to allow them to verify that their vote is included in the tally, all votes were cast
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The Help America Vote Act (HAVA, Pub.L. 107-252 ) is a United States federal law passed the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate[1] and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002.
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Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details.
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The term "software independence" (SI) was coined by Dr. Ron Rivest, and NIST researcher John Wack. A software independent voting machine is one who's tabulation record does not rely solely on software.
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In engineering and its various subdisciplines, acceptance testing is black-box testing performed on a system (e.g. software, lots of manufactured mechanical parts, or batches of chemical products) prior to its delivery.
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Software verification is a broad and complex discipline of software engineering whose goal is to assure that a software fully satisfies all the expected requirements.

There are two fundamental approaches to verification:
  • Dynamic verification

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Usability testing is a means for measuring how well people can use some human-made object (such as a web page, a computer interface, a document, or a device) for its intended purpose, i.e. usability testing measures the usability of the object.
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An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station. Numerous methods have been devised to facilitate this. Increasing the ease of access to absentee ballots are seen by many as one way to improve voter turnout, though
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Chads are paper particles created when holes are made in a paper, card or similar synthetic materials, typically computer punched tape or punch cards.

Chads were made famous in the highly contentious 2000 presidential election in the United States, where a majority in the U.
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Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes.
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Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes.
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A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question in regards to a given voter's eligibility. A provisional ballot would be cast when:
  • The voter refuses to show a photo ID (in regions that require one)

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Premier Election Solutions

Public (NYSE:  DBL )
Founded Ohio (January 22, 2002)
Headquarters North Canton, Ohio, United States

Key people Thomas W. Swidarski, CEO & President
Kevin J. Krakora, EVP & CFO
David Bucci, SVP
Charles E.
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Sequoia Voting Systems is a company based in California, and one of the largest providers of electronic voting systems in the US. Some of its main competitors are Diebold Election Systems and Election Systems & Software.
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Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is an American company that provides voting services. It was founded in 1979[] as American Information Systems Inc. (AIS), it merged with Business Records Corp. the following year and changed its name to ES&S.
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Hart InterCivic Inc. is a privately held United States company that provides elections, geospatial system integration, and print solutions to jurisdictions nationwide. While headquartered in Austin, Texas, Hart products are used by over 300 jurisdictions nationwide.
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Computer software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that perform some task on a computer system. [1]
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firmware is a computer program that is embedded in a hardware device, for example a microcontroller. It can also be provided on flash ROMs or as a binary image file that can be uploaded onto existing hardware by a user.
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Voting is a method of decision making wherein a group such as a meeting or an electorate attempts to gauge its opinion—usually as a final step following discussions or debates.

Voting is used in two different ways.
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Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes.
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punch card or punched card (or punchcard or Hollerith card or IBM card), is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions.
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ballot is a device (originally a small ball - see blackball) used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but
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