SECURITY
of the COMPUTERS:
Ah! The processing!
The computer system is located in a locked and secure room. There are industrial quality, high-speed scanners, which make and save a digital copy of the votes that were marked on the paper ballot by the voter. They are directly connected to the processing computers, and take only seconds to read a batch.
At
predetermined and announced times, so that observers may be present,
the ballots in batches are 'read' into the computer system by a
high-speed scanner, one batch at a time. The batch numbers are
registered on the log sheets of each scanner.
The scanner.
One big
safeguard is that the scanners and computers which read the marks on
the ballots, and store and count the votes, have NO
communication-connections to the outside world. Programs are loaded
onto the computers from certified copies on digital media. Data
cannot be sent directly to or from these computers and any others.
The computers have features which would block any attempt to
send/receive thru the electric power lines.
All vote-total
digital output from those computers is transferred out ONLY by manual
transport of a removable external disc drive. The data is copied onto
such a disc, which is carried (by two people, for integrity) to an
administrative room to be incorporated into the permanent storage
systems. (We call that a "sneaker-net", referring to their
shoes.) For verification, those vote totals are also printed in both
locations (the computer room before they go out, and again in the
administrative office, so there can be a double-check.) Then the
results will be made ready to go public. BUT! There is another step!
AUDITS and
OBSERVERS:
The
computerized results are subjected to a wonderful activity - a manual
double-check - a mini-audit.
One major activity which the
Observers do, is randomly selecting batches for integrity
verification. While the paper-ballot batches are being scan-read by
the computer systems, the Observers in that room have been granted
the role of designating some random batches to be later verified by a
hand-count. Those batches are then sealed in special boxes, tagged,
registered, and stored in a separate place.
The double-check
hand-count takes place soon afterwards (usually the next morning.)
Those randomly-selected batches of paper ballots are taken to a
meeting-room, and any Observers may be present. The Staff opens the
paper ballot boxes, and hand-count the selected races (twice, by two
teams of staffers.) If those two counts agree, then the computerized
counts (which were printed but not disclosed) are announced for the
first time, and everybody knows whether the computer-counts numbers
match the hand-counts -- or are different! It is an independent,
basic double-check!
If the vote-tally numbers differ between
the computer-count and the hand-count, then an investigation is
started (right there, in the same room!) The paper ballots are then
intensely scrutinized for any irregularity which might have been
understood one way by the computer-system, and another way by the
staff. The most common reason for a difference has been that a
pen-mark by the voter on a paper ballot was lighter than recommended
(required) -- which led the staff-people to see it as "A VOTE",
but the more-sensitive computer-system to call it "a non-vote -- a
blank". When the staff and managers find such a ballot, it will be
removed from the batch and a substitute ballot sheet marked
(duplicated) to coincide with the presumed Voter-Intent will be
inserted. That "repaired" batch is then again run through the
scanner/computer system, and the new results are brought to the
review team (with Public Observers still there). With almost no
exceptions, over about a dozen years, the computer tally with the
vote properly marked, matched the hand count first found by the
verify-staff. No errors, and no corruption.
The
batches of paper ballots are then archived, under a management system
of coded identification of each batch.
THE
COMPUTERS AND SOFTWARE:
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