U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Quick Start

Management

Guide

for New Voting

Systems

June 2006


Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems

Receiving and Testing

•	 Request written confirmation from your

State election office that the voting system

you have selected is certified for use in your

State.

•	 Confirm delivery of all equipment and

supplies; develop inventory control

procedures that include recording of all

serial numbers.

•	 Test all equipment and supplies (memory

devices, voter access cards, ballots, etc.)

upon delivery.

Implementation Tips

•	 Conducta mock election in your office

using the new voting system. Set up

two to three mock polling places with

your pollworkers staffing the locations.

Observe and time the setup and closing

tasks; monitor the voter flow; evaluate

your supplies and instructions; debrief

to evaluate the need for change, etc. The

mock election should include opening the

polling place, processing voters, closing the

polling place, returning supplies, tabulating

and reporting the results, preparing for

and conductinga recount, including

procedures for recountinga voter verifiable

paper audit trail (VVPAT), if applicable.

•	 Have an established point of contact with

your vendor.

•	 Review and evaluate polling places to

determine room capacity for equipment

needs, including electrical and modem

requirements.

The Quick Start Management Guide is 

a snapshot of processes and procedures 

for local election administrators to use 

when implementing new voting systems. 

It is not intended to be a comprehensive 

management tool but a guide that 

highlights priority items essential to 

managing a successful election with a 

new voting system. A comprehensive 

set of Management Guidelines is under 

development and will be released in 

modules over the next several years.
Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems



Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems

•	 Develop procedures and work flow for

return of supplies on Election night.

Practice the procedures with staff

members, evaluate and debrief this activity,

and implement necessary changes and

improvements. Example: If you plan to 

transmit results by modem from polling places or 

collection depots, test all equipment and phone 

lines in a mock election before Election Day. 

•	 Brainstorm solutions to various scenarios

and developa “Plan B.” Ask “What If”—

•	 Ballots arrive after delivery deadline?

•	 Pollworkers don’t arrive with supplies?

•	 Phone lines won’t work?

•	 Voters are standing in long lines?

•	 A polling place loses electricity?

•	 Voting machines are not operational

when polls open or malfunction

during the day?

•	 Polling places indicate they are low on

ballots?

•	 Coordinate establishment of users groups

of common voting systems within your

State; register those users groups with the

Election Assistance Commission(lotero@

eac.gov) to connect with users groups in

other States.

•	 Debrief all aspects of the election with fulltime staff, roving technicians, pollworkers,

and voters.

•	 Share your solutions and innovations

with your State office, the Election

Assistance Commission, and professional

organizations.

Public Relations

•	 Partner with organizations in your

community to conduct voter outreach

activities to educate voters on the use of

your new equipment.

•	 Communicate with and educate the media,

candidates, elected officials, voters, and

the general public through public service

announcements, online Web tutorials, and

printed materials.

•	 Conduct office tours and open houses to

educate the public on the election process

and the use of your new voting system.

Pollworker Training

•	 Develop an easy-to-use, one-page machineopening/closing checklist for pollworkers.

•	 Review all polling place supplies and

instructions to ensure ease of use.

•	 Provide hands-on machine training to all

staff and pollworkers. Teach pollworkers

to open voting machines in teams of two,

with one person reading the instructions

and the other performing the tasks.

Identifya minimum of two pollworkers in

each polling place who are well trained in

opening and closing the voting equipment.

If applicable, include hands-on training on

the removal and replacement of VVPAT

devices.

•	 Incorporate roleplaying exercises as part

of your pollworker training program. Set

upa demonstration polling place and

practice Election Day procedures by having
Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems



Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems

pollworkers take turns being voters and

precinct officials.

•	 Package simple reminders with polling

place supplies to ensure that pollworkers

remember the most important details on

Election Day.

•	 Provide an opportunity for pollworkers to

practice opening and closing the voting

machines during the week before Election

Day; keep track of who attends the practice

sessions and where they are assigned

on Election Day. Identify polling places

where pollworkers did not attend practice

sessions; prioritize AM/PM support to

those locations to assist with opening and

closing the machines.

•	 Providea means for pollworkers to provide

feedback following training sessions,

practice sessions, and Election Day.

Programming the Election

•	 Proofread all ballot styles usinga twoperson sign-off policy.

•	 Determine who will print the ballots and

consider locatinga backup printer for

emergency purposes. Use only printers that

have been certified to print ballots for your

specific voting system.

•	 Require election office signoff on all ballot

proofs before printing; proofread all ballot

styles after the ballots are returned from the

printer.

•	 Conduct logic and accuracy (L&A)

testing of the ballots before mailing and

distributing them to voters.

•	 Perform L&A testing on every voting

machine memory device and every voting

machine before every election. For VVPAT

users, print several voted ballot audit tapes

to determine the length of the VVPAT bal-

lot and use this information to estimate the

number of VVPAT canisters or paper rolls

that will be required for each polling place.

•	 Conclude your L&A testing by performing

an integrated test, combining results from

all sources (optical scan precinct count,

central count, and voting machines).

•	 Review all tabulation reports for accuracy.

•	 Collect and safeguard the audit trail

documentation relating to the testing of

the paper ballots and voting equipment for

each election.

•	 Ensure that each voting device has been

zeroed out before delivery to each polling

place.

Security

•	 Periodically back up your election database

and store off site.

•	 Develop chain-of-custody logs and proofing

logs to ensure two-person integrity at all

times. Example: Two staff members create the 

test deck of ballots; two different staff members 

hand count the test deck; different staff members 

conduct the L&A on the optical scanners and 

on each voting machine; different staff members 

proof the results of the L&A tests, including the 

final integrated test. 


Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems



Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems

•	 Record voting equipment serial numbers,

protective counter numbers, and tamperresistant seal numbers for transport to and

from polling places. (One person records

the numbers and another person proofs

the numbers.)

•	 Prepare, communicate, and distribute your

voting system security procedures, such as

the following:

•	 Never connect your voting system

computer to the Internet or to any

internal network.

•	 Never allow any software on the voting

system computer except the voting

system software.

•	 Control and monitor access to the

voting system computer at all times.

Consider securing this computer ina

controlled access room and keepa log

of everyone who accesses the system,

along with the date and reason. Always

require two-person integrity when

accessing the voting system computer.

•	 Store all voting equipment supplies, paper

ballot stock, and printed ballots in locked

rooms. Control and monitor access to

these rooms.

Election Day—Opening the Polls

•	 Consider sending pollworkers to the

polling places an additional 1/2 hour

before opening the polls until the

pollworkers are comfortable with the new

procedures and equipment.

•	 Provide polling place support teams. Assign

roving technicians to 10 to 15 polling

places and opening and closing helpers to 3 to 4 polling places.

•	 Developa polling place checklist for roving

technicians to use to assure that all polling

places are set up and operating according

to established procedures.

•	 If possible, assigna high school or college

pollworker to each polling place.

•	 Assign AM and PM support technicians

to the polling places with the most critical

needs; e.g., new polling place supervisor or

inexperienced pollworkers. Example: Partner 

with city, county, school district, and/or college 

full-time information technology staff to support 

three to four polling places close to their home 

or place of employment. Send them to provide 

assistance, as needed, before opening the polls 

and when closing the polls until the pollworkers 

are comfortable with the new equipment and 

procedures.

•	 Establisha Help Desk phone bank with

a unique phone number; assign trained

staff members to the phone bank and

document all incoming requests for

assistance.
Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems



Quick Start Management Guide for New Voting Systems

Election Day—Processing Voters

•	 Provide desktop, easy-to-use guides for

processing provisional voters vs. regular voters.

•	 Review polling place setup diagrams to

ensure voter privacy when using the voting

equipment.

•	 Post easy-to-read voter instructions on

the use of the new equipment, including

information on how voters can review

their ballots for accuracy when using your

specific voting system.

•	 Develop chain-of-custody and two-person

integrity throughout the polling place

operation. Examples: (1) All pollworkers must 

verify in writing the seal numbers and protective 

counter numbers when opening and closing the 

voting equipment. (2) When a voter checks in at 

the registration table, the voter must be issued a 

“voter receipt” indicating the voter’s party and 

ballot style. The voter must present this receipt 

to the machine judge, who activates the voting 

machine and confirms the ballot style and party 

with the voter. The machine judge must place 

the voter receipt in an envelope attached to the 

voting machine before the voter votes the ballot.

•	 Require that pollworkers periodically

balance the number of voters processed

to the number of ballots in all voting

machines.

•	 Train pollworkers to know how to

continue the voting process with minimum

interruption in case of an equipment

malfunction or other natural or manmade

disruption.

Election Day—Closing the Polls

•	 Provide the same polling place support

teams as provided for opening the polls.

•	 Determine how results will be returned to

the central tabulation computer; develop

procedures and implement security

controls. Options include the following:

•	 A pollworker from each polling place

drives back to the central election

office.

•	 A pollworker from each polling place

drives toa regional collection location,

which periodically drives supplies to

the central election office.

•	 A pollworker from each polling place

drives toa regional collection site,

where staff members upload and

transfer results to the central election

tabulation computer.

•	 A pollworker from each polling place

uploads and transfers results to the

central election tabulation computer.
U.S. Election Assistance Commission 

U.S. Election Assistance Commission

1225 New York Avenue, NW

Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20005

866–747–1471 (toll free)

HAVAinfo@eac.gov 

www.eac.gov