EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Sanford Morganstein
Organization : | Populex Corporation
Post Date : | 8/26/2005
Section Comments
Section : | 6.8.6.10.3
Page no. : | 50
Line no.: | 10
Comment : | Discussion: We believe we understand the intent of this requirement, but as drafted, this requirement places undesirable constraints on a paper trail. For example, if the paper trail bar code contains an Error Correcting Code (ECC) desirable to ensure that the ballot can be read or recovered, this requirement will prohibit such a desirable characteristic. Perhaps even more fundamental to the technology used in bar codes, are stop and start characters that, according to a strict construction of this requirement, would also be prohibited. Finally, it is entirely plausible and desirable, that the bar code contain field identifiers that are used to provide an unambiguous parsing of the bar code. We are not sure what this requirement is intended to protect. If anonymity is being protected here, we suggest replacement by the following: “The barcode shall not contain any information that can be used to provide the voter’s identity.”