EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Doug Jones
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/26/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Ballot
Definition : |
Comment : | In response to your request for comments on the draft glossary of voting system terminology, I offer the following. In each case, I am quoting your original and then offering an alternative definition. Ballot: (1) Physical form (e.g., paper, card, tape) presenting a sequence of contests, ballot measures or both. Traditionally paper, but may take other forms such as an electronic image, audio format, or a video format. (2) Official election presentation of offices and candidates, including write-in candidates and of questions and issues, and the means by which votes are recorded. See also audio ballot, ballot image, video ballot, electronic voter interface. Ballot: (1) Physical record of the selections made by a voter in all of the races or contests in a particular election. Typically used in the context of hand-counted paper, punched card, or optical mark-sense ballots. When the ballot is recorded in electronic form, the term ballot image is preferred. (2) An official presentation of all of the contests to be decided in a particular election. These may be printed on the ballot (sense 1), printed on a ballot label (as used for punched-card and mechanical-lever voting machines), presented on a computer display screen, or in some alternative form such as audio. -- Comment: There really are two different senses of the word ballot. Sense 1: "I put my ballot in the ballot box." Sense 2: "I got my name on the ballot for school board." Note that if I use votomatic ballots, my name will not occur on the ballot I put in the ballot box even if my name is on the ballot on that election! Many definitions get this wrong in state law.