Minutes
State Board of Elections Meeting via
Conference Call
January 31, 2002
The meeting was called to order by chair Joyce Hazeltine
on January 31, 2002 with the following members
participating:
Present in Person: Joyce Hazeltine, Linda Lea Viken, Gail
Brock
Present via telephone: Karen Layher, Carol Klumper, Nelva
Kristofferson
Chris Nelson, Secretary of State's staff was present in
person and Peggy Runestad, Sanborn County Auditor was
present via telephone.
Chris gave a description of the ES&S Model 100 version
4.5.5 certification demonstration. The demonstration report
is attached to these minutes.
Moved by Viken, seconded by Brock to certify the ES&S
Model 100 firmware version 4.5.5 optical scan ballot counter
for precinct and central count use. Passed.
Adjourned.
Joyce Hazeltine, Secretary of State
Chris Nelson, Recorder
Certification Report for ES&S Model 100
Optical Scan Ballot Counter
Version 4.5.5
On January 15, 2002 Mike Hoversten as a representative of
ES&S demonstrated the Model 100 optical scan ballot counter
version 4.5.5. Chris Nelson, state election supervisor,
viewed the demonstration on behalf of the State Board of
Elections. Cindy Callies, Miner County Auditor, and Diane
Larson, Deputy Sanborn County Auditor, also attended a
portion of the demonstration.
The test deck used for the demonstration contained 330
cards. It was decided to run 9 repetitions for a total of
2970 ballots. The demonstration had to meet all of the
requirements of ARSD 5:02:09:02.01. Those requirements are
as follows:
- It enables the voter to vote in absolute secrecy.
- The ballots used in this system are voted in a
ballot booth and with the use of privacy sleeves the
ballots remain secret until they go in the box or
are placed in the scanner.
- It enables the voter to vote a ticket selected from
all the candidates.
- Voters can vote for all candidates with this
system.
- It rejects all of a voter's votes for any office or
on any measure if the voter has cast more votes for the
office or the measure than the voter is entitled to.
- The scanner listed over voted races as such and
did not count those votes.
- It accommodates all measures to be submitted to the
voters in the form provided by law.
- The optical ballot accomodates all measures
which need to be voted on.
- It processes 3,000 ballots at a rate of 15 ballots a
minute for a central counting unit.
- ES&S requested that this unit be certified as a
central count unit. The demonstration showed that
ballots could be fed at a rate of 15 ballots per
minute. 2970 ballots were processed.
- It processes 750 ballots at a rate of 10 ballots a
minute for a precinct counting unit.
- ES&S requested that this unit also be certified
as a precinct count unit. The demonstration showed
that ballots could be fed at a rate of 15 ballots
per minute. 2970 ballots were processed.
- It allows no more than one percent of ballots to be
rejected by the machine because of ballot feeding errors
during a demonstration.
- After about 1000 ballots had been run through
the machine, it began rejecting ballots randomly.
When a ballot was rejected, the machine stopped,
gave an error message of "missed orientation" or
"multiple ballots" and returned the ballot to the
operator. These errors occurred irregardless of what
orientation was used to feed the ballot. The errors
appeared random but became more frequent to the
point the machine was barely useable. An ES&S
technician was telephoned to determine the problem
and we were advised that a sensor(s) must have
gotten out of adjustment. A second scanner had been
brought to the demonstration so a decision was made
to remove the program card from the faulty scanner
and insert the card in the new scanner. This was
done and counting resumed. No further problems were
encountered throughout the remainder of the 3000
ballots.
- It accurately counts every ballot for each position
voted.
- The final ballot count on the machine was 2969.
This was one ballot short of the 2970 which should
have registered. Likewise each race on the ballot
was one vote short of what should have been recorded
for that race. The uncounted ballot occurred during
the 7th repetition of the ballots. It is
unclear why there was an uncounted ballot.
The test deck of ballots used for the demonstration
contained perfectly marked ovals. "Voter error" was not a
consideration during the demonstration.
After the 2970 ballots were processed and the results
printed, several ballots were marked with various types of
"imperfect" marks to see what the counter would count and
what it would not. Mr. Hoversten indicated that the digital
read head in this unit can be adjusted for whatever level of
sensitivity was desired. As this unit was set with a DAC
value range of 150-170, "X’s" and "√’s" were not recognized
by the unit but could be adjusted to recognize these votes.