New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT › Subtitle V - State Board of Elections › Part 6209 - Voting Systems Standards › Section 6209.1 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
The terms used in this Part shall have the significance
				  herein defined unless another meaning is clearly apparent in language or
				  content.
(a) Acceptance test means a
				test conducted by the county board and the State Board, to demonstrate that
				each voting system delivered, when installed in the user's environment, meets
				all functional requirements and contains exactly the same components as the
				voting system of that type, which received certification from New York State,
				including but not limited to all hardware, programming (whether in the form of
				software, firmware, or any other kind), all files, all file system hierarchies,
				all operating system parts, all off-the-shelf hardware and programming parts
				and any other components.
(b) Audio
				voting feature means a device that allows blind or visually-impaired persons,
				or persons with limited reach and/or hand dexterity, the ability to cast their
				vote.
(c) Auxiliary components
				means any device, materials or equipment which is used to give assistance or
				aid to the actual voting device but is not a permanent or enclosed part of the
				voting device.
(d) Ballot
				configuration (layout) means the positioning on and/or linkage within the
				ballot (whether on a DRE or other display screen, or on paper), of all
				political party names and emblems, and names and emblems of all independent
				bodies, office titles, ballot proposals, and candidate names, and spaces for
				write-in candidates, in accordance with the requirements of the Election Law as
				to order and rotation.
(e)
				Calibration test means a test prepared and conducted to determine and/or verify
				that the correct sensitive areas of a voting system, and their level of
				sensitivity function on an ongoing basis in the same manner as the certified
				system.
(f) Canvass means a
				compilation of election returns and validation of the outcome that forms the
				basis of the official results by political subdivision.
(g) Central count paper-based system means a
				voting system that uses an optical scan technology to record and tabulate votes
				from multiple election districts at a county board office, including all
				absentee, emergency, affidavit and other such paper ballots.
(h) County board means a county's Board of
				Elections, including the Board of Elections in the City of New York.
(i) DRE means a direct recording electronic
				voting system in which, through a touch-screen, push-button, or other
				electronic mechanism, a vote is immediately recorded onto electronic media, by
				means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical
				components, or an ultrasonic, capacitative or other touch-screen, which is
				activated by the voter. Styles include bubble switch ballot overlay and
				touch-screen-style machines.
(j)
				Election assistance commission (EAC) is the commission established by the Help
				America Vote Act of 2002, which serves as a national clearinghouse for
				information and the review of procedures with respect to the administration of
				Federal elections.
(k) Election
				configuration means the file or files created by the election management
				software including but not limited to the following data used to program
				polling place and central count voting systems: definition of jurisdictional
				information (e.g., counties, local legislative, congressional or election
				districts), both electronic and paper ballot content and artwork (e.g., ballot
				text, voting positions), definition of races (e.g., elected offices,
				candidates, number to vote for, propositions, or other types that control
				voting in other races on the ballot, definition of voter groups (e.g., by
				party, absentee, non-absentee), ballot styles, linkage of candidates to their
				respective parties and races, linkage of races to their respective
				jurisdictions, linkage of ballot text to database labels to produce results
				reports, and allocation of trans-district vote tallies to their constituent
				districts for reporting purposes.
(l) Election management software (EMS) means
				the software used by the voting system to describe ballot layout, collect and
				report election results, and maintain audit trails.
(m) Environmental conditions means the effect
				of natural environmental conditions such as: temperature, humidity, dust and
				induced environmental conditions such as handling, storage or transportation
				which may affect the operation of the system and/or equipment.
(n) Escrow account means an account and/or a
				secure facility held by a third party, which shall be approved by the State
				Board, for the purpose of taking custody of all materials required to be put in
				escrow by statute or by these voting system standards.
(o) Firmware means a computer program stored
				in read-only memory (either programmable or non-programmable), that becomes a
				permanent part of the computing device that is not subject to change or
				modification without review by the State Board.
(p) Hardware means the actual voting or
				ballot counting device.
(q) Header
				card (or header sheet) means a marksense card or sheet upon which appears
				printed information used to identify a particular batch of ballots, usually
				those for a single election district. It is placed at the beginning of the
				batch for vote tabulation to ensure that the votes cast on those ballots are
				correctly attributed. Cards placed at the end of a particular batch of ballots
				are called end cards.
(r)
				Maintenance log means a written and/or electronic record which contains all
				information relating to performance of scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance
				on a voting system, all service visits performed by the vendor or manufacturer,
				and other maintenance or service performed by any other provider of service,
				including county and State Board employees.
(s) Marksense means a system by which votes
				are recorded by means of marks made in voting response fields designated on one
				or both faces of a ballot or ballot cards. Marksense systems may use an optical
				scanner or similar sensor to read the ballots. Also known as optical
				scan.
(t) Modification means any
				change in the software, firmware or hardware, data storage location of files,
				or any other component of the voting system, and shall require re-examination
				of certified system or equipment by the State Board.
(u) Optical scan voting system means a voting
				system in which a voter records his or her vote by placing a mark in a
				designated voting response field on a paper ballot or card, which is read and
				tabulated using optical-scan technology or a marksense system that reads the
				paper ballot or card by scanning the ballot and interpreting the contents.
				Styles include precinct-based and central-count paper-based systems.
(v) Operational manual means a manual of all
				procedures involved in every phase of the operation and use of the voting
				system by board of elections personnel, including but not limited to unpacking
				and acceptance testing, storing, installing all programming, operations
				testing, preparing for an election, servicing and maintaining, trouble-shooting
				and repairing, packing and shipping to poll sites, and returning to the county
				board's facilities, and including all operational procedures for the set-up of
				the ballot, opening of the polls, use for voting, closing the polls, and
				canvassing the count.
(w)
				Paper-based voting systems means any electronic or computerized ballot counting
				system or equipment which tabulates and reports votes cast on paper
				ballots.
(x) Pneumatic switch means
				a device which allows persons with certain disabilities the ability to cast
				their vote.
(y) Pre-qualification
				test means a predetermined set of tests of the total voting system throughout
				the election process including votes and vote totals prepared by the State
				Board. Such votes shall be entered into the voting system in the same manner as
				they will be entered by voters during an election. If a voting system offers
				several methods for votes to be entered, such as touch-screen, push-button, or
				other electronic mechanism, a key pad and/or pneumatic switch for voters with
				disabilities, or alternate language displays, then the pre-determined set of
				votes shall be entered separately using each method and language display. The
				results of the casting of said votes and all voting system logs shall be
				extracted from the system as though during normal use in an election, and the
				results and logs shall be compared to the predetermined results of the test
				votes and vote totals prepared by the State Board.
(z) Printout means the printed copy of zero
				totals, candidate names and offices and other information produced by the
				voting equipment prior to the official opening of the polls and the tabulation
				of votes cast for each candidate and question, the names of candidates and the
				offices for each candidate and other information provided after the official
				closing of the polls.
(aa) Resident
				vote tabulation means the manufacturer's internal firmware which shall
				permanently reside on the voting system's central processing unit, registering,
				accumulating, and storing votes and ballot images.
(ab) Resident memory means the internal
				memory of the voting system that stores election results and ballot images but
				is prohibited from storing executable code on removable media.
(ac) Software means any programming
				instructions used by the vote counting system, including but not limited to
				system programs and application programs. System programs include but are not
				limited to the operating system, control programs, communication programs,
				database managers, and device drivers. Application programs include but are not
				limited to, any program that processes the data.
(ad) Source code means the computer program
				in its original form, as written by the programmer. Source code is not executed
				by the computer directly, but is converted into machine language by compilers,
				assemblers and interpreters.
(ae)
				State Board means the New York State Board of Elections.
(af) Tactile discernible controls means a
				voting feature which allows persons with limited reach and/or hand dexterity,
				the ability to cast their vote, for example: raised buttons of different shapes
				and colors, large or raised numbers or letters, and light pressure switches.
(ag) Test deck means a pre-audited group of ballots prepared
				  for each election. The ballots are voted with a pre-determined number of valid
				  votes for each candidate, each write-in position, and each voting option on
				  every proposal that appears on the ballot as certified by the county board. The
				  deck includes one or more ballots that have been improperly voted, or which are
				  voted in excess of the number allowed by law, and one or more ballots on which
				  no votes are cast, in order to test the ability of the system to recognize
				  and/or notify of an under or overvote. It also includes one or more ballots on
				  which two or more votes are cast for a candidate whose name appears on the
				  ballot more than once for the same office in order to test the ability of the
				  system to count only the first of such votes for the candidate. If there is
				  more than one ballot style for an election, a separate test deck is created for
				  each ballot style.
(ah)
				Testing laboratory means a certified private or public laboratory used to
				perform tests on the voting systems and related equipment.
(ai) Vendor shall include any manufacturer,
				company or individual who seeks to sell voting systems and/or services for such
				systems in New York State.
(aj)
				Voting position means the specific voting response area on the face of the
				displayed ballot where a selection is made for a candidate or proposal.
(1) Ballot position means the area on the
				ballot or ballot display occupied by one candidate or position on an issue,
				including the area devoted to the candidate name or position on the issue and
				the sensitive area, as defined immediately below.
(2) Sensitive area means the area on the
				ballot or ballot display which may be pressed, touched, or marked in order to
				cast a vote which, in some cases, may be the entire position, while in other
				cases it may be limited to the voting target (as defined immediately below) on
				a paper ballot or push button on a full-face DRE machine.
(3) Voting target means the area of a paper
				ballot which the voter is asked to mark in order to cast a vote; typically an
				oval, square or a fragmented arrow.