From: levine@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Leonard P Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Voting Booths
Date: 10 Nov 1992 21:17:15 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Reply-To: levine@convex.csd.uwm.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.7.30
Originator: levine@convex.csd.uwm.edu

From article <1992Nov10.140552.8706@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com>, by shanks@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com (Mark Shanks):

> I'll curb my predisposition to argue that anyone who isn't smart enough
> to figure out the MECHANICS of voting shouldn't be ALLOWED to vote, and
> ask if you two live in some benighted area that doesn't use punch
> ballots. I haven't seen the old draw-curtain telephone-operator-style
> booths in 25 years, and I've voted in Caribou, Maine and St. Peters,
> Missouri, neither being exactly leading-edge communities.

In Wisconsin, at least in the Milwaukee County area we now use paper ballots 
that are marked with a pencil, by god.  You complete the arrow pointing to
the candidate of your choice which looks like this:

joe doaks    <<     <<
Sam Spade    <<     <<

To vote for Sam, just fill in the line between the Karats.  Good illustrations
are on the ballot.

When filled out, both sides may be preprinted, you put the ballot into a
blue box about the size of a dishwasher and it is tallied.  If the ballot 
can not be read, it kicks back and an error message is displayed (in english)
so you can fix it.  Errors are voting for too many people in the same office
bad erasures and the like.  If you do not vote for an office or question
that is just too bad.

The ballot when tallied is dropped into a locked box in the machine, with
write in votes (permitted) put into a differnt box permitting them to 
be hand counted.

When the polling place closes, and only then, the count can be taken in one
of three ways.  An officer can key in a password and the small cash register
printer on top of the machine prints the results, a modem can be used to
call in the results, and/or the system ram (battery backed up) can be 
removed and carried to a central location.  In any event, the paper ballots 
are still there permitting a recount from the base data. 

The media has paid for the modem connection here allowing fast results to
be reported.  The system allows for up to 4 different ballots to be handled
in one machine (maybe more, my memory fails me) with ballots separately
handles for differnt elections in different precients(?) in the same room.

Actual marking is done at simple curtained tables with pencils, dropping the
ballot into the box is done in the middle of the room.  Typically, two machines
are located in one room to take care of hardware failure, although the
paper ballots can be simple collected if it all goes down.

I have examined this system with some care, it seems to be the best of all
reasonable worlds.  The tally is fast, the ballot is checked before the 
voter leaves the room, a paper trail remains if the electronics is tampered
with.

+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| Leonard P. Levine                    e-mail levine@cs.uwm.edu |
| Professor, Computer Science             Office (414) 229-5170 |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee       Home   (414) 962-4719 |
| Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A.              FAX    (414) 229-6958 |
+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors