Application of technological advances is resulting in higher levels of automation in various aspects of voting operations, with consequent advantages for speed of processing, information gathering and transfer, and simplification of processes.
Some applications are discussed below. The use of automated systems for recording and/or counting votes is now spreading from its origins in the United States to countries such as Brazil and Norway. Descriptions of a number of different hardware and systems solutions for automated voting may be found under the 'Electoral Products' section of Links to Other Sites - Index.
Printing Ballots
Where paper ballots are used, publishing software allows the direct transfer of all ballot details directly from the electoral management body to print contractors for machine set-up and on-line proofing. Particularly where different ballots for large numbers of electoral districts are required, this can result in considerable time savings at a critical point in the election process.
Fully automated ballot printing systems provide for the individual printing, in the voting station, of each voter's ballot. Such systems can provide a fully visible audit trail for the electronic recording of each voter's vote.
Form Printing
Electronic communications systems networked to electoral district managers' offices can allow local printing, strictly on an as needed basis, of election forms. Particularly for low volume administration forms, savings can be achieved in printing and distribution costs.
Mail Voting
Print and insertion automation can both reduce costs and speed the despatch and processing of returned mail ballots. Direct transfer from marked up electronic voters list data to mailing house contractors of data on voters requiring mail ballots, allows automated, centralised printing of personalised ballot envelopes and other material, and the correct ballot(s) for immediate insertion and bulk mailings. Extensive cost savings against hand insertions in local electoral district offices can be achieved.
Bar Coding
Bar coding can be used to assist voting integrity and accuracy of records. An important application is in the checking of voter eligibility at voting stations. Ink jet or laser printing of voter identification cards can incorporate a unique bar code on each voter's identity card. On presenting this card at the voting station, the bar code is read, and automatically cancelled, by staff using a portable bar code reader. These readers can be loaded with the voters list information for that voting station. This enables:
- bar code data from the card to be automatically checked against an electronic voters list and eligibility to vote confirmed;
- in combination with other identity controls, an accurate determination of who has voted;
- automatic calculations of accurate totals of persons who have voted for use in close of voting reconciliations;
- accurate collection of important data for future election planning, such as time-line breakdowns of voter turnout.
Voters without their card, or a damaged card, can be offered a provisional or tendered vote.
These portable bar code readers could be linked to central or regional computers containing complete voter registration data for the election. This would require relatively sophisticated, widespread and secure available data links and central or distributed processing units of sufficient capacity to handle the inquiry traffic volume. Additional benefits from this linkage would be:
- simplfied automatic checking against records of early voters, to prevent multiple voting;
- provision of immediate, accurate re-direction advice to voters who have turned out to vote at an incorrect voting station;
Use of such secure bar-coded voter identification cards could eliminate the need for printed voting station voters lists as the primary recording and control device of who has voted.
Another similar application is in the use of unique bar codes on envelopes used for the return of ballots from mail voters, and for other special votes that are enveloped with voter details. Automated reading of the codes on returned envelopes again will provide accurate data on who has voted.
Scannable Ballots
For the last twenty years, ballots designed to be used with systems using optical mark reading (OMR) software have been available and used recently in some jurisdictions. In these systems, the voter marks a single preference, in a specified way, against each set of choices on the ballot paper.
Effective use of OMR systems has been limited to ballots where voters mark a single preference for each choice on a ballot. However, intelligent character reading (ICR) facilities currently in development allow ballots on which the voter has written multiple numerical preferences to be scanned accurately, and a high ratio of read to unread ballots at rates of around five to seven thousand per hour per machine. Efficiency can be increased by on-line operator intervention to key unread ballots. Integrity and audit requirements are satisfied by both summary and detailed reports, and ink jetting of read preferences onto the ballots themselves. While set up costs are still such that equipping each voting station with such count facilities is prohibitive, this method can be cost-effective for use in regional and central count centres or for later checking of counts for all ballots.
Disposable Equipment
In Australia, disposable, corrugated cardboard voting station equipment--voting compartments , ballot boxes, polling officials tables and crowd control barriers--have been developed. Similar varieties of cardboard voting equipment have been developed in Canada and New Zealand. Similarly inexpensive, lightweight ballot boxes, capable of being used for multiple days of voting, have also been developed in corrugated plastic sheet. Net savings, through reduced storage and distribution costs for voting equipment, from using such lightweight, disposable items are considerable.
