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EAC Certified System Technical Advisory

EAC System(s) Affected: ES&S Unity 3.2.0.0, ES&S Unity 3.2.0.0 Rev. 1 

Component(s) Affected: DS200 

Version(s) Affected: DS200 firmware version 1.3.10.0 (Unity 3.2.0.0) and 1.4.5.0 (Unity 

3.2.1.0). This may impact other DS200 firmware version 

(unconfirmed). 

Date: March 3, 2011 

Summary: During Federal certification testing a DS200 Ballot Scanner 

accepted a ballot into the ballot bin without counting the ballot.

Advisory: 

Counties and jurisdictions with this product should be aware that during Federal certification 

testing of the Election Systems & Software (ES&S) Unity 3.2.1.0 voting system, a DS200 accepted a 

voted ballot and deposited it in the ballot bin without recording the ballot in the public counter. 

ES&S determined this anomaly can occur in versions of the DS200 firmware Federally certified 

with Unity 3.2.0.0 and Unity 3.2.0.0 Rev. 1. Other versions of the DS200 firmware may also be 

affected; however, this has not been independently confirmed by ES&S. According to ES&S, this 

anomaly has an extremely low rate of occurrence.

Overview: 

During Reliability Testing on Unity 3.2.1.0, a DS200 accepted a ballot without incrementing the 

public counter and vote tally. ES&S informed the EAC that this anomaly exists in the EAC 

certified Unity 3.2.0.0 voting system, Unity 3.2.0.0 Rev. 1 and in the Unity 3.2.1.0 voting system 

currently undergoing Federal testing at Wyle Laboratories. Fielded DS200s with firmware 

versions 1.3.10.0, 1.4.5.0 and possibly others, have the capability of exhibiting this anomaly. 

ES&S submitted a proposed solution to this anomaly for incorporation in the Federal testing of 

the Unity 3.2.1.0 voting system. 

Anomaly Description: 

During the Voting System Test Laboratory’s (VSTL) Reliability Test, one of the DS200 units 

accepted a ballot without incrementing the public counter. Two ballots were in the ballot bin and 

only one ballot was counted by the DS200. Reports of the messages displayed by the DS200 when 

the anomaly occurs have differed. Two different messages are displayed in rapid succession. The 

U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION

Voting System Testing and Certification Program

1201 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC. 20005 
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first message informs the voter that votes for more than one party were selected. This is followed 

by a message advising the voter to ether accept or return the ballot. Upon reviewing the audit 

log, the event was originally recorded by the following message: “Ballot Removed During Scan 

(137).” To the EAC’s knowledge, instructions are not displayed on the DS200 screen to assist a 

pollworker in resolving this uncounted ballot anomaly when it occurs. Please refer to the 

Recommended Procedures section of this Technical Advisory and ES&S Technical Bulletin 

#PRBDS2000010 dated February 11, 2011 if this anomaly is experienced. 

Root cause: 

Wyle Laboratories and ES&S conducted extensive research in order to identify the root cause of 

this anomaly. Wyle traced the anomaly through the voting system’s source code and found that 

when certain ballot exceptions occur while processing a ballot, a function within the scanner can 

incorrectly make the DS200 believe the submitted ballot is twenty-eight (28) inches long. 

Therefore, when a standard ballot is fed into the scanner and this error condition occurs, the ballot is 

accepted into the ballot bin without incrementing the counter because the scanner is expecting a 

longer ballot. ES&S implemented improvements to the Unity 3.2.1.0 DS200 firmware in an 

attempt to resolve this anomaly. This updated firmware is part of the Unity 3.2.1.0 system 

currently under test. 

Recommended Procedures:

Due to the fact that this anomaly exists in firmware versions 1.3.10.0 and 1.4.5.0 of the DS200, 

local election officials using this system should take care to reconcile the voter list with the public 

count on all DS200 machines. EAC recommends that local election officials make pollworkers 

aware of this anomaly via pollworker training and Election Day instruction materials. If this 

anomaly is witnessed, follow jurisdiction procedures which should include contacting the lead 

local election official in order to correctly conduct the reconciliation process. 

ES&S Technical Bulletin #PRBDS2000010 recommends the following resolution: 

“If you see any of the aforementioned error messages, poll workers should complete any necessary actions 

required by the error messages. In addition, the lead poll official should be notified that a potential ballot 

count issue has occurred and the public counter for the affected DS200 should be monitored for 

reoccurrence of the problem. You may also consider removing the unit from service if the situation were to 

re‐occur.” 

ES&S noted: 

“Any suspected ballot count issues can be validated after poll closing by comparison of the voter check-in log

against the total public count from the DS200 results tapes. State procedures should be followed in the event of 

a discrepancy.”