EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Robert Kibrick
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/27/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Direct Record Electronic Voting System
Definition : |
Comment : | Direct Record Electronic (DRE) Voting System: Voting system that records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be actuated by the voter, that processes the data by means of a computer program, and that records voting data and cast vote records in internal and/or external memory components. It produces a tabulation of the voting data stored in a removable memory component and/or in printed copy. Association: voting Source: VSS, IEEE 1583 This definition makes reference to “votes” and to “voting data” without clearly specifying any difference or relationship between the two terms; neither of these two terms is defined elsewhere in this glossary. It also uses the verb “records” in two different contexts, only one of which is consistent with the definition of “record” located elsewhere in the glossary. That conflict might be avoided if the initial reference to “records votes” were replaced by “registers selections”, since the selections or choices that the voter specifies via the “ballot display” and its associated components are alterable by the voter and are not recorded (i.e., preserved) until the voter’s vote is cast. It also specifies that “the data” are processed by means of a computer program, without explicitly specifying what constitutes “the data”.