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Ballot Design and Printing
Election Center Workshop
April 19, 2007
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� Errors are discovered on the ballots
after they have been delivered by theprinter± candidate name, race,
misspelling, words missing from
question, etc.
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� One of the candidate¶s name is too
long and you have discovered thatit drops off the paper ballot and/or
voting machine screen,
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� You discover that there have been moreballot printing errors ± voters have
called and are complaining that the
reverse side of some of the ballots is
blank!!
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� Some of the voter instructions aremisprinted and/or missing on the
ballot.
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� The printer is running behind and
has called to notify you that your
delivery schedule is now
delayed. Ballots will begin to be
delivered on the day before early
voting begins.
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� Thousands more voters are requesting
provisional ballots on Election Day.Poll workers are calling to report that
they are running out of certain precinct
ballots.
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� When you begin to scan the voted
absentee ballots, you discover thatsome of the ballot stock is a different
quality paper stock and some of the
ballots won¶t scan.
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� The candidate names have beenprinted too close to timing marks and
when the ballots are scanned the votes
are being recorded as overvotes.
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� The corrections that staff made to thepaper ballot record are not showing up
as corrected on the same voting
machine ballot.
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Top Ten Things to Worry About
� Corrections made to the candidate
name on one race in the ballot fileaccidentally changed the font size on
that one race on the voting machine
ballot.
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Preventive Measures
� Proofing, Proofing, Proofing, Proofing ± Take steps to validate that precincts (and splits)
are properly assigned to correct districts
± Proof every ballot ± on paper and on the votingmachine
± Re-proof the ballots ± on paper and on thevoting machine after corrections are made
± Proofing should be done by staff members thatdid not enter the information
± Dual sign-off on all proofing documentation
± Back up and lock down the ballot file when final
proofs are approved.
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Preventive Measures
� Review printing company contracts
± Establish chain of custody for finalapproved ballot proofs
± Ensure quality control procedures are inplace
± Stipulate the quality of ballot stock and inkdensity within the print contract
± Communicate printing deadlines in writing
± Tour the printing facility and consider having staff on-site
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Preventive Measures
� Establish internal policies/proceduresfor acceptance of printed ballots
� Verify that the correct quantity of ballots has been received
� Conduct logic and accuracy tests onprinted ballots BEFORE issuing any
ballots to voters� Conduct logic and accuracy tests on all
voting machine ballot memory cards
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Preventive Measures
� Develop a ³Plan B´
± Have blank ballot stock on hand and
consider using a ³ballot on demand´
printer for emergencies
± Photocopy blank ballots using your copy
of the ballot proof until more ballots can
be printed ± Be prepared to hand feed the ballots
through the central scanners, if necessary
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The Overall Goal is to
NEVER Have Your Stomach
Feel Like This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Questions and Comments???
Connie Schmidt, CERA
913-206-7395