EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Robert Kibrick
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/27/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Electronically-Assisted Ballot Market (EBM)
Definition : |
Comment : | Electronically-Assisted Ballot Marker (EBM): Machines that provide assistance to voters who are visually impaired, who have difficulty reading English, or in other cases where a voter has difficulty correctly marking by hand a preprinted paper ballot that is to be counted in optical scan systems. The device marks, or helps to mark selected vote choices on a previously inserted, preprinted paper ballot. The machine then provides audio, tactile, or visual feedback to the voter on what choices they have made on the ballot. The resulting ballots are later tabulated on the same unit that processes ordinary hand-marked paper ballots. Association: voting, human factors Source: IEEE 1583 There is no reason to assume that EBMs will only be used exclusively by visually impaired voters, etc., even if that is their intended purpose. One could image an EBM used by the able-bodied, or an EBM that is inaccessible to voters with some combinations of disabilities (e.g., voters who are blind and deaf). Some advocate the use of EBMs for all voters (except absentee voters) using a central-count optical scan/marksense voting system in order to prevent common voter errors such as overvotes, thus serving a broader purpose beyond accessibility.