EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Robert Kibrick
Organization : | The Verified Voting Foundation
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Section Comments
Section : | 3.2.4.2
Page no. : |
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Comment : | In describing the need for various paper-based voting systems to maintain ballot privacy, especially for voters with visual disabilities, EAC Advisory 2005-004 (issued July 20, 2005), makes specific reference to the use of ballot privacy sleeves. Yet while Section 3.2.4.2 of the VVSG, "Paper-Based Record Standards", provides requirements pertaining to paper ballots and ballot boxes, it makes no mention whatsoever of privacy sleeves or envelopes for protecting the privacy of optical scan paper ballots as they are carried to a precinct-count optical scanner (PCOS). The use of such sleeves or envelopes is an essential component of PCOS systems, and both the sleeves and ballot scanners must be so designed so that the scanner is able to mechanically extract the ballot directly from the sleeve or envelope in such a manner that ballot privacy Is preserved during this process. The VVSG should require that: 1) ballot privacy sleeves or envelopes must be provided to voters using PCOS systems and 2) the ballot insertion mechanisms on such PCOS scanners must be able to extract ballots from such sleeves or envelopes while ensuring ballot privacy. While many existing PCOS scanners already provide this capability, not all do.