EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Jill LaVine
Organization : | Registrar of Voters, County of Sacramento
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Section Comments
Section : | 2.2.7
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Comment : | EACH CAST BALLOT SHALL ACCURATELY CAPTURE THE SELECTIONS MADE BY THE VOTER. My next area of concern is the requirement for the voting system to support a process that notifies the voter if he or she has attempted to vote for fewer candidates than the maximum permitted, and the opportunity to change the ballot before it is submitted to the voting system. SUGGESTION: I suggest that this be done very carefully, as to not intimidate the voter to vote for candidates or contests they do not want to vote on. Example: In one of my outreach presentations I was talking to a new citizen about voting. He was concerned because he did not know all the candidates and did not know which one to select. When I informed him he was not required to vote every single contest he was amazed – he said “you mean I have the freedom not to vote?” While I consider it a freedom to vote, where he had come from it was mandatory. He was enjoying the new freedom of voting only those contests he truly wanted to select. [Statements submitted at EAC public hearing, August 23, 2005, Denver]