RE: State of Illinois

Submitted on behalf of GBS and the State of Illinois (note the language is by Diane Felts, State of Illinois):

1. The Election Summary Report will:

a. List "Votes Cast" rather than "Total Votes" since the totals reported on this report are the "Votes Cast."

GEMS has functionality to customize this, although it is not frequently used. It would not be difficult to change this for Illinois. If this is really just a preference of theirs, rather than some kind of state requirement, it would be better to keep the GEMS terminology consistent. If Illinois insists on the change, does anyone object to changing "Total Votes" to "Votes Cast" in the post election reports?

b. Not list any write-ins except for Declare Write-in Candiates, if possible.

c. If possible, list the "Vote For."

These are options in the "Show" box of the summary report dialog.

2. The Statement of "Votes Cast" will include at least the following:

a. The "Vote For"

We don't do this, but its not hard to add, and is not a bad idea. It will be in the next major GEMS release.

            b.    "Ballots Counted"

            c.    "Votes Cast"

            e.    "Undervote Total"

            f.    "Overvote Total"

These are options in the "Show" box of the SOVC dialog.

g. Candidates' Total

We always show the candidate total -- kind of the point of an SOVC report.

d. "Blank Ballot Total"

GEMS can report blank races, but not blank ballots. The AccuVote does not upload this information to GEMS, so we can't add it without AccuVote firmware changes. The change would also require an incompatible upload protocol. In short, a big deal, without much utility I can see. Perhaps they will accept the blank races?

h. Declared Write-in Candidate Name(s) and Total(s)

GEMS calls this "registered write-ins". You can create reg write-ins in the race/candidate dialog after set-for-election. They show up on reports just like any other candidate.

3. The Statement of Votes shall not report the percentages for overvotes, undervotes and blank times voted.

SOVC has the ability to turn on or off percentages, but not by field. We could add the ability to do it by field, but I question whether this added complexity is worth the utility. What is the reasoning behind this request? The only real advantage I can see in turning them off is to save paper. Is it really so bad that they get the percent overvotes?

4. The Statement of Votes shall not report write-in votes except for Declared Write-In Candidates.

I think this is the same as 2h?

5. The Tabulator will not tabulate and report write-in votes nor segregate them into a separate ballot box bin since it cannot distinguish a valid from an invalid write-in vote. The election judges will tally any write-in votes and complete the necessary tally sheets as prescribed by Election Law.

Sorting (or not sorting) write-ins is an option under the AccuVote setup dialog. We could make a custom AccuBasic report that did not show the write-in totals (ie, the number of write-in ovals filled), but is there really any harm in giving them this information? They are free to hand count the write-ins at the polls anyway.

I would think that they would want to sort their write-ins though. Sure, they will have to go through the main bin to pick out write-ins that did not have their ovals filled, but at least they won't have to pick out he ballots from voters who were bright enough to fill in the oval.

Ken