EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | David Dill
Organization : | Verified Voting Foundation
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Voting System
Definition : |
Comment : | The integrated mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment and software required to program, control, and support the equipment that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report and/or display election results; and to maintain and produce all audit trail information. It additionally includes the associated documentation used to operate the system, maintain the system, identify system components and their versions, test the system during its development and maintenance, maintain records of system errors and defects, and determine specific changes made after system certification. A voting system may also include the transmission of results over telecommunication networks. See also electronic voting machine, voting equipment, voting machine. Source: VSS This definition is appropriate for automated, mechanized, or computerized voting systems, but is not sufficiently broad to include voting systems that employ hand-marked paper ballots that are counted by hand. Although such systems have (for the most part) been supplanted by automated voting systems, they are still in use (and will likely continue to be used) in many states and thus should be included under any generic definition of “voting systems”. Also, while this definition includes the equipment used to define ballots and to cast and count votes, it does not include the equipment used to store or transport ballots (either paper or electronic ballots), and thus does not appear to include ballot boxes (either those used for storing paper ballots or the removable memory cards used to store and transport electronic ballot images). Such ballot boxes are a critical component of any voting system.