EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | David Dill
Organization : | Verified Voting Foundation
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Electronically-Assisted Ballot Marker (EBM)_b
Definition : |
Comment : | Suggested change: “A device that marks, or helps to mark, selected vote choices on a previously inserted, preprinted paper ballot. The device may use an electronic voter interface as the means for enabling voters to register their selections of candidates and issues. The machine then provides audio, tactile, and/or visual feedback to the voter on what choices they have made and on what choices have been marked on the paper ballot. The resulting paper ballots are later tabulated on the same unit that processes ordinary hand-marked paper ballots. Such devices can be used to provide assistance to voters who are visually impaired, who have difficulty reading English, or in other cases where a voter has difficulty correctly marking by hand a preprinted paper ballot that is to be counted in optical scan systems; they may also be used to prevent overvoting and provide warnings about undervoting on paper ballots voted at the polling place in jurisdictions employing central-count paper-based voting systems.” Further, this definition fails to address an extremely significant capability provided by at least some existing EBMS: the ability to provide visual and/or audio read-back of the selections that have been marked on the preprinted paper ballot. Either that capability should be made a part of this definition, or a new definition should be created for EBMs that provide this additional capability.