County Clerk
Election Study Group Report
VIII. Recommendation(Option #1)
After extensive consideration of the scenarios available to Travis County, the study group developed four options that could be viable for Travis County. As illustrated by the comments from study group members, a majority of members chose to recommend the following. First and foremost, the 1999 Travis County Election Study Group concludes that the future of elections lies in direct recording electronic (DRE) systems. We also recognize that to purchase an entire DRE system to handle both early voting in person and election day voting might not be financially feasible at this time. Furthermore, the droup believes that voters will feel more comfortable with the system if it is phased into use.
Therefore, the recommendation of the study group is:
Purchase 150 direct record electronic systems for early voting and 250 precinct ballot counters for election day with a rolling technology upgrade clause that allows for automatic update of the equipment and software. As the community becomes familiar with the DRE system, phase in DREs to the election day program, eventually replacing all PBCs with 1,200 DREs.
Recommendation assumes the early voting by mail program will be handled with optical scan paper ballots and counted on compatible optical scan ballot counting equipment.
This recommendation addresses many of the issues detailed in the problem statement:
- Accuracy. The direct record electronic voting system addresses the intent of the voter issue by not allowing a voter to create an overvote in the first place. Using the precinct ballot counter at the polling place, the election day voter feeds the optical scan ballot directly into the optical scanner. The PBC will reject the ballot if it detects overvotes or stray marks that could be read as overvotes. The voter has the final audit of his/her own ballot before the ballot is counted. Therefore, the initial intent of the voter audit is handled in the precinct by the voter.
- Timeliness of results. Precinct election results can be electronically transferred from the precinct or substation directly to a central computer for accumulation and report printing.
- Accessibility. Some DRE systems have a component to address secret ballot voting by visually impaired voters and some are fully accessible. Fully accessible DREs are not included in the cost analysis (see page 16 for information on cost options for adding ADA/independent voting DREs). The PBCs do not address accessibility issues.
- Growth. DREs and PBCs should provide adequate accommodation of a growing voter population.
- Paper Ballot. The PBCs use the traditional optical scan paper ballot currently being used by Travis County. The DREs use no paper ballots; therefore the waste and expenditure, approximately $38,000 - $57,000 per election, that currently occurs as a result of printing early voting ballots will be eliminated.
Table 4. Central Counting Station vs. Precinct Ballot Counter: Time & Resource Savings
Approximate times and resources. Because the CCS is staffed by teams of workers, many of these tasks occur concurrently.)
|
Central Counting Station (CCS) |
Precinct Count with Central Computer Accumulation |
|
Election Judge and clerks complete close-out of paperwork. (454 people, 30 - 45 min.) |
Election Judge and clerks complete close-out of paperwork. (454 people, 30 min.)
|
|
Election Judge drives precinct paperwork, ballots, and key to Receiving Substation (RSS). (10 - 30 min.) | |
|
RSS certifies receipt of voted ballots. (50 people, 2 hours) | |
|
Sheriff's deputies secure ballot boxes and drive several ballot boxes to the Central Counting Station (CCS). (20 people, 2 hours) | |
|
CCS election workers verify ballot box seals. (60 people, 3 hours) | |
|
CCS election workers open ballot boxes. (60 people, 3 hours) | |
|
CCS election workers audit the ballots, individually checking each ballot to ensure that the tabulating machine will accurately register the voter's mark. During this process workers also align ballots for tabulator. (60 people, 3 hours) | |
|
Tracking sheet is completed to indicate everything that has happened with the ballots. | |
|
Any ballots which are identified through the audit as being unreadable for the tabulator are "resolved"-handled so that the machine will be able to count each voter's intent accurately-by a Resolution Team by either remaking the ballot or applying labels. (24 people, 4 hours) | |
|
Ballots are fed into a tabulator to be counted by a Tabulation Team. (24 people, 4 - 5 hours) | |
|
Every so often, counts must be saved on a disk and delivered to the central computer. (30 people, 2 hours) | |
|
The computer operator loads diskettes, accumulates the counts, and prints reports. (1 person, 2 hours) |
If a phone line is available at the precinct, the Election Judge modems the results to the central computer for accumulation and report printing. (1 person at central computer, 20 - 30 minutes) OR If a phone line is NOT available at the precinct, the Election Judge drives to a Receiving Substation and modems the results from these to the central computer for accumulation and report printing. (10 people at 5 Receiving Substations to accept/certify diskettes and perform the modem transfer, 1 hour) |
|
Results are posted at CCS as well as provided to the media and posted on Travis County's web site. (15 people, 1 hour) |
Results are posted at the location of the central computer as well as provided to the media and posted on Travis County's web site.(10 people, 20 min.) |
|
Time: 26 hrs, 40 min - 28 hrs, 15 min |
Time: 2 hrs, 10 min - 2 hrs, 20 min |
|
People: 798 (including election judges) |
People: 475 (including election judges) |
Approximate cost of Recommendation
A quantity of 150 DREs and 250 precinct ballot counters is suggested for the initial purchase. The eventual replacement of the PBCs with 1200 DREs is suggested as the voters become accustomed to the DREs. Costs are based on retail price quotes. No trade-in or quantity discount figures are currently available. In addition, leasing or a payment plan over several years may be options.
|
150 Early Voting DREs |
$600,000 |
|
250 Election Day PBCs |
$1,885,750 |
|
Total initial cost |
$2,485,750 |
|
1200 for Election Day DREs |
$5,000,000 |
|
Total cost of recommendation |
$7,485,750 |
It is estimated that this recommendation will, depending on the size of each election, save Travis County $40,000 - $64,000 per election in operating, administration, and ballot costs. Once the DRE system is fully implemented for both early voting in person and election day voting, savings will be approximately an additional $49,000 - $76,000 per election.
Because election equipment is delivered to the polling locations beginning 5 - 7 days prior to election day, the DREs from early voting would not be available for election day.
- return to Conclusion
- continue on to Other Options
