EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | David Dill
Organization : | Verified Voting Foundation
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Touch Screen Voting Machine
Definition : |
Comment : | Machine that utilizes a computer screen whereby a voter executes their choices by touching designated locations on the screen; the resulting electrical signals are then tabulated within the machine. Association: voting Since the term “Voting Machine” is defined elsewhere in this glossary as equipment for the “direct recording and tabulation of votes”, would not a “touch screen voting machine” also need to record a “cast vote record” in addition to tabulating “those choices”? Wouldn’t it make more sense either to define a touch screen voting machine as a specific instance of a “voting machine”, i.e., one that uses touch screen sensors as one of the means by which voters indicate their choices or as a specific instance of a DRE, since all touch screen voting machines currently in use are in fact DREs? Suggested change: “A voting machine [or DRE] that utilizes a computer screen whereby a voter executes that voter’s choices by touching designated locations on the screen.” Similarly, it is worth noting that at least some electronically-assisted ballot markers (EBMs) also employ touch screen sensors for similar purposes. Presumably, such devices would be properly referred to as “touch screen EBMs”.