Code of Maine Rules › 29 - DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE › 250 - BUREAU OF MOTOR VEHICLES › Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions › Chapter 535 - RULES GOVERNING THE ADMINISTRATION OF ELECTIONS DETERMINED BY RANKED-CHOICE VOTING › Section 250-535-6 - Process for Ranked-choice counting

Current through 2024-29, July 17, 2024
1.
Security of the ranked-choice counting area.
There will be a
				  guardrail enclosure set up to separate the ranked-choice counting area from the
				  public viewing area at the RCV counting facility. Only the ranked-choice
				  counting personnel designated in Section 5 of this rule will be allowed inside
				  the guardrail enclosure. All persons allowed inside the guard rail must sign in
				  each day, on a form provided by the Secretary of State. Candidates, media and
				  members of the general public must remain outside the guardrail area. Only
				  limited conversation will be permitted in the RCV counting facility. Cell
				  phones must be silenced during the count and may be used within the guardrail
				  area only by the ranked-choice counting personnel as needed to conduct the
				  process. Any person who causes a disruption of the RCV count may be removed
				  from the room, at the discretion of the RCV Supervisor.
2.
Inspection of Materials.
Prior to opening tamper-proof containers of ballots that were hand-counted on
				  election night, or sealed packages containing memory devices for ballots that
				  were machine tabulated on election night, the ranked-choice counting personnel
				  will inspect each container or package to document whether it was properly
				  sealed. As each container or package is opened and ballots or memory devices
				  are removed and processed, personnel will complete a tracking log.
3.
Processing of ballots and memory
				  devices.
The following activities may be conducted simultaneously or
				  consecutively, depending on the number of ranked-choice counting personnel
				  available.
A.
Hand-counted
				  ballots.
Tamper-proof containers of ballots that were hand-counted on
				  election night will be unsealed and scanned through a tabulating device in
				  order to obtain electronic results and cast vote records. RCV Assistants will
				  be assigned to unseal the tamper-proof containers of hand-counted ballots,
				  remove the ballots related to the ranked-choice contest(s) to be counted, and
				  prepare them for scanning. This will be done on a municipality-by-municipality
				  basis and an RCV assistant will generate a report of the scanned results. On a
				  periodic basis, the memory devices from the hand-count ballot scanning will be
				  uploaded into the election results reporting program.
B.
Machine-tabulated ballots.
Packages containing memory devices from municipalities whose ballots were
				  machine-tabulated on election night will be unsealed and the contents uploaded
				  into the election results reporting program. RCV Assistants will be assigned to
				  perform this task. This will be done on a municipality-by-municipality basis
				  and an RCV assistant will generate a report of the results that were
				  uploaded.
C.
Ballots that
				  cannot be scanned.
Ballots that cannot be scanned, either by the
				  tabulating device used by the Secretary of State at the central location for
				  the RCV count or by the ballot tabulator used by the municipality, must be
				  manually entered into a spreadsheet to create an electronic cast vote record
				  for these ballots. The creation of the cast vote record spreadsheet and
				  subsequent proofreading of the spreadsheet will be done by a team of two
				  ranked-choice counting personnel. After the cast vote record for all ballots
				  that could not be scanned are entered and verified, the file will be uploaded
				  into the election results reporting software.
D.
Storage and return of processed
				  materials.
After the process of scanning ballots and uploading memory
				  devices is completed for each municipality, the materials will be resealed in
				  the containers or delivery packages and secured by the Secretary of State until
				  after any recount period has passed. After the recount period has expired, or
				  after any requested recount has been completed, ballots will be returned to the
				  municipality of origin, while memory devices will be delivered to the Elections
				  Division for coding the next election.
E.
Hardware and software.
The
				  Secretary of State will use hardware and software compatible with the current
				  tabulating system for performing the RCV count. Precinct tabulators or
				  high-speed tabulators used for scanning the hand-counted ballots will be
				  non-networked devices and will not be connected to the internet or employ any
				  wireless technology. The computers used for the election results reporting
				  program will be a self-contained, single-purpose, hard-wired network and will
				  not be connected to the internet or employ any wireless technology. The
				  Secretary of State will procure a software utility or algorithm that
				  incorporates the ranked-choice vote counting requirements as described in
				  section 4, subsection 2 of these rules. The RCV counting utility will utilize
				  the cast vote records and apply the ranked-choice vote counting requirements to
				  complete the rounds of the RCV count and determine a winner.
F.
Quality control reports.
As
				  each municipality's results are uploaded into the election results reporting
				  program, the RCV Supervisor or an RCV Assistant will generate a report of the
				  total ballots cast to compare with the total ballots cast figure reported by
				  the municipality based on the election night count. This comparison will be
				  used to verify that all results from election night for each municipality have
				  been uploaded or all hand-count ballots have been scanned and results
				  uploaded.