EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | David Dill
Organization : | Verified Voting Foundation
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Voting Officials
Definition : |
Comment : | Term used to designate the group of people associated with elections, including election personnel, poll workers, ballot designers and those responsible for the installation and maintenance of the voting systems. Association: voting Source: no attribution This definition appears to blur distinctions between those individuals employed by the government agencies (elections department, county registrar’s or clerk’s office, etc.) responsible for the conduct of the election and those privately employed by the vendors (or third-party maintainers) of the voting systems used to conduct the election. While the former are usually duly-sworn individuals who are accountable to those government agencies who are in turn accountable to the voting public, the latter typically are not. This definition might be used to imply that employees of voting systems vendors who are “responsible for the installation and maintenance of the voting systems” are in fact “voting officials”. This definition should be tightened to eliminate such an interpretation. Voting officials should be duly authorized by a government authority.