EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Conny B. McCormack
Organization : | County of Los Angeles
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | Two weeks ago the State of Vermont finalized a contract with one vendor of such a telephone voting system, lVS, and plans implementation in 2006. In light ofthelMay 10,2005 letter from the U.S. Department of Justice clarifying that the deadline for compliance with HAVA Section 301 is January 1, 2006 and not the first election containing a federal office, a mere three months remains for election jurisdictions across the country to meet the requirements by the deadline. The IVS Vote by Phone system that Vermont has selected is a paper ballot marking device that does not tabulate votes. In this regard it is not unlike other ballot marking devices such as the use of a pencil or pen to mark a paper ballot. When a voter uses the IVS system at the voting precinct, it creates a paper ballot that the voter verifies via audio feedback prior to casting the ballot. Afterwards, the paper ballot may be counted in any number of ways including manually or by duplicating onto an optical scan ballot that can be tabulated by existing voting systems.