Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 721 - Secretary of State › Division II - Elections › Chapter 22 - Voting Systems and Electronic Poll Books › Rule 721-22.1 - Definitions for Certification of Voting Equipment

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
"Accredited independent test authority "
means a person or agency that was formally recognized by the National
				  Association of State Election Directors as competent to design and perform
				  qualification tests for voting system hardware and software. "Accredited
				  independent test authority" also includes voting system test laboratories
				  accredited by the Election Assistance Commission to test voting systems for
				  compliance with federal voting system standards and guidelines, as required by
				  the Help America Vote Act, Section 231.
"Audio ballot"
means the presentation of the
				  contents of a ballot on an electronic ballot marking device in a recorded
				  format, played to the voter over headphones.
"Automatic tabulating equipment"
means
				  apparatuses that are utilized to ascertain the manner in which optical scan
				  ballots have been marked by voters or by electronic ballot marking devices and
				  to count the votes marked on the ballots.
"Ballot"
means the official document that
				  includes all of the offices or public measures to be voted upon at a single
				  election, whether they appear on one or more paper ballots. The term includes
				  optical scan paper ballots designed to be read by automatic tabulating
				  equipment. In appropriate contexts, "ballot" also includes conventional paper
				  ballots.
"Ballot marking device "
means a pen,
				  pencil, or similar writing tool, or an electronic device, all designed for use
				  in marking an optical scan ballot, and so designed or fabricated that the mark
				  it leaves may be detected and the vote so cast counted by automatic tabulating
				  equipment.
"Certification "
means formal approval of an
				  optical scan voting system for use in Iowa pursuant to Iowa Code sections
				  52.5
				  and
				  52.26.
"De minimis change"
means a change to a
				  certified voting system's hardware, software, technical data package (TDP), or
				  data, the nature of which will not materially alter the system's reliability,
				  functionality, capability, or operation. Under no circumstances shall a change
				  be considered de minimis if it has reasonable and identifiable potential to
				  impact the system's performance and compliance with the applicable voting
				  standard.
"Early voting "
means the process of
				  receiving ballots from voters before election day without using absentee voting
				  procedures. Iowa law does not authorize this process.
"Electronic ballot marking device "
means a
				  component of an optical scan voting system designed to assist voters with
				  disabilities by displaying audio and visual ballot information to the voter,
				  providing accessible methods for the voter to make selections, and then
				  printing the voter's choices on an optical scan ballot.
"Electronic poll book, " "epollbook, " "e-poll book,
				  "
or
"electronic register "
means hardware and
				  software components used to verify and process voting activity and changes in
				  voter registration and to check in voters. This definition includes e-poll
				  books in use in the commissioner's office. However, this definition does not
				  apply to the I-Voters statewide voter registration database.
"Electronic transmission"
means using
				  hardware and software components to send data over distances both within and
				  external to the polling place and to receive an accurate copy of the
				  transmission.
"Examiners "
means the board of examiners
				  for voting systems described in Iowa Code section
				  52.4.
"Memory storage device "
means a small,
				  removable device containing data files of the election definition programmed
				  for use in voting equipment for each election.
"Modification"
means a change to a certified
				  voting system's software or firmware. Modification also means a change to a
				  certified voting system's hardware that has the potential to affect the
				  reliability, functionality, capability, security or operability of a
				  system.
"Optical scan ballot"
means a printed ballot
				  designed to be marked by a voter with a ballot marking device and to be counted
				  by use of automatic tabulating equipment.
"Optical scan voting system "
means a system
				  employing paper ballots under which votes are cast by voters by marking paper
				  ballots with a ballot marking device and thereafter counted by use of automatic
				  tabulating equipment.
"Program "
means the written record of the
				  set of instructions defining the operations to be performed by a computer in
				  examining, counting, tabulating, and printing votes.
"Qualification test"
means the examination
				  and testing of a voting system by an independent test authority using the
				  voting system standards required by Iowa Code section
				  52.5
				  and rule
				  721-22.2
				  (52) to determine whether the system complies with those standards.
"Vendor "
means a person or representative
				  of a person owning or being interested in an optical scan voting system and
				  seeking certification of the equipment for use in elections in Iowa.
"Voting booth"
means an enclosure designed
				  to be used by a voter while marking a conventional paper ballot, optical scan
				  ballot or ballot card.
"Voting equipment"
means an optical scan
				  voting system which is required by Iowa Code sections
				  52.5
				  and
				  52.26
				  to be approved for use by the examiners.
"Voting equipment malfunction"
means a
				  problem with the voting equipment that renders the equipment inoperable for a
				  period of time when it is has been deployed for use during an election. "Voting
				  equipment malfunction" does not include interruptions of equipment operations
				  due to routine error messages as referred to in subrule 22.261(5), 22.262(6) or
				  22.266(5).
"Voting system"
means the total combination
				  of mechanical, electromechanical or electronic equipment (including the
				  software, firmware and documentation required to program, control and support
				  the equipment that is used to define ballots, to cast and count votes, to
				  report or display election results and to maintain and produce any audit trail
				  information). "Voting system" also includes the practices and associated
				  documentation used to identify system components and versions of such
				  components, to test the system during its development and maintenance, to
				  maintain records of system errors and defects, to determine specific system
				  changes to be made to a system after the initial qualification of the system
				  and to make available any materials to the voter such as notices, instructions,
				  forms or paper ballots. (See Section 301(b) of HAVA.)