Voting Systems and Technology Flashcards

What is the primary purpose of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) issued by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)?

Answer: To provide a set of specifications and requirements against which voting systems can be tested for functionality, accessibility, and security.

The VVSG provides a benchmark of technical requirements for voting systems that manufacturers can use for design and that testing laboratories use for evaluation. While their adoption is voluntary at the federal level, many states require their voting systems to meet these standards. They do not mandate specific systems, create a national database, or establish laws for audits.

An election official is preparing for a Logic and Accuracy (L&A) test on a batch of optical scan tabulators. The test deck includes ballots intentionally marked with overvotes, undervotes, and marks for every possible candidate combination. What is the primary goal of this procedure?

Answer: To ensure the tabulator is programmed correctly to read all ballot styles and accurately count all valid marks while rejecting invalid ones.

Logic and Accuracy (L&A) testing is a critical pre-election procedure to verify that voting equipment and its programming for a specific election are correct. The process uses a pre-marked 'test deck' of ballots to confirm the system will accurately tabulate votes as cast according to the jurisdiction's rules, including the proper handling of overvotes and undervotes.

A state legislature has mandated the implementation of a post-election audit that provides the highest degree of statistical confidence that the correct election outcome has been certified. Which of the following audit types best fits this description?

Answer: A Risk-Limiting Audit (RLA) that uses statistical principles to provide strong confidence in the outcome.

A Risk-Limiting Audit (RLA) is specifically designed to provide a high level of statistical confidence that the reported election outcome is correct. Unlike a fixed-percentage audit, an RLA's sample size is determined by the margin of victory—the closer the race, the more ballots are examined to meet the statistical confidence threshold.

A voter with a dexterity impairment requests to use a Ballot Marking Device (BMD) at a polling place. After the voter makes their selections using the assistive interface, the BMD prints a paper ballot with their choices. What is the next critical step the voter must take before casting their vote?

Answer: Review the printed paper ballot to verify their selections are recorded correctly before inserting it into the tabulator.

The printed paper record from a Ballot Marking Device (BMD) is the official ballot of record. A core principle of secure voting with a BMD is voter verification. The voter must have the opportunity to review the human-readable text on the paper ballot to ensure it accurately reflects their intent before the ballot is cast, which is typically done by inserting it into a scanner.

What is a key technological and procedural difference between a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting system and an optical scan system?

Answer: DRE systems directly store vote selections in electronic memory, while optical scan systems count marks on paper ballots.

The fundamental difference lies in how the vote is recorded. DREs capture votes directly into electronic components (e.g., memory card, hard drive). In contrast, optical scan systems interpret voter marks on a physical paper ballot, and that paper ballot serves as the primary record of the vote.

Which of the following is a critical security practice for maintaining the chain of custody of a voting machine's memory card after the polls close?

Answer: Placing the memory card in a tamper-evident sealed container, which is then signed by multiple poll workers.

Maintaining chain of custody requires an auditable paper trail to prove that election materials have not been altered. Using tamper-evident seals on containers and requiring signatures from multiple individuals creates a secure log of who handled the device and helps ensure its integrity during transport from the polling place to the central counting facility.