Michigan Administrative Code › Department - State › Elections & Campaign Finance › Use of Optical Scan Tabulators by Absentee Voters › Section R. 168.773 - Preparation of program

Current through Vol. 24-12, July 15, 2024
Rule 3.
(1) A
				program shall be written so as to accurately tabulate a voter's choices for
				each candidate, office, and measure for which the voter is lawfully entitled to
				vote, in conformity with the act and these rules.
(2) A program shall include an instruction
				requiring that 2 identical header cards precede the deck of ballot cards for
				each precinct. The program shall provide that if 2 identical header cards do
				not appear in front of the ballot cards of a precinct, the counting of ballots
				for that precinct shall not take place. In programs to be used on a specialized
				computer, 1 header card is required, unless the function of the header card is
				performed by the program.
(3) An
				end card shall follow the ballots of each precinct. The program may provide
				that if a header card contains instructions to the computer that all ballots of
				the preceding precinct have been counted, a separate end card is not required.
				In a program to be used in a specialized computer, an end card is not
				required.
(4) A program may be
				maintained by a generally accepted method, within the computer industry, of
				input or output or a combination of methods.
(5) Two edit listings shall be prepared and,
				not less than 3 days before the preliminary accuracy test, shall be delivered
				to the election commission responsible for supplying the program.
(6) The election commission responsible for
				supplying the program shall provide necessary information to the person or
				company designated to write or prepare the program.
(7) The program for an election and a
				duplicate copy shall be completed and delivered to the election commission
				responsible for supplying the program not less than 3 days before the
				preliminary accuracy test. A duplicate is not required where a specialized
				computer is used.
(8) If a program
				is written to be used on a general purpose computer, the person or company
				providing the program shall, at the time the program is delivered, submit to
				the election commission a certificate stating that the program was prepared
				from all relevant input data, describing the procedures which were used to
				determine its accuracy, and stating that the program has been written pursuant
				to the act and these rules.
(9) The
				person preparing the program shall submit to the election commission
				responsible for supplying the program instructions containing the information
				and procedures required to operate the program. The election commission shall
				make the instructions available to the computer operators.
(10) The vote tabulation portion of the
				program shall be written:
(a) To reflect the
				rotation sequence of the candidates' names and ballot position numbers as they
				appear on the ballot labels in the various precincts.
(b) To count valid votes cast by a voter for
				candidates for an office.
(c) To
				count valid votes cast by a voter for or against any question.
(d) So as not to count votes cast by a voter
				for an office or question if the number of votes cast by a voter exceeds the
				number which the voter is entitled to vote for on that office or
				question.
(e) To ignore punches in
				a ballot card in positions where a candidate's name or questions do not appear
				on the official ballot. These punches shall not have an effect on the
				ballot.
(f) So that the partisan,
				nonpartisan, and proposal sections of the ballot are considered separate
				sections of the ballot. The action of a voter in 1 section of the ballot shall
				not affect the voter's action on another section of the ballot.