Ballot Adjudication via Machine-Readable Barcode Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Manual recreation and re-entry of voting selections from improperly marked paper ballots are time-consuming and prone to human error, as existing systems struggle to accurately read and process such ballots.
Innovation Solution
A ballot processing system that generates a machine-readable barcode for properly marked selections, allowing an electronic voting system to automatically identify and adjudicate contests with improper markings, reducing the need for manual re-entry and minimizing human error.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual recreation and entry of voting selections is used for improperly marked ballots, then election officials can process ballots that machines cannot read, but the process becomes time-consuming and prone to human error
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary scanning and identification of properly marked selections on improperly marked ballots before the adjudication process begins. The barcode on each ballot encodes information about correctly marked contests, allowing the system to pre-populate the electronic ballot with these selections, so that election officials only need to review and correct improperly marked contests rather than entering all selections from scratch
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a digital copy of the properly marked selections from the paper ballot by scanning the barcode, which contains encoded information about the voter's selections. This digital copy is then transferred to the electronic voting system, eliminating the need for manual re-entry of correctly marked selections and reducing both time and error potential
2Loss of information
If manual entry of all voting selections is required for improperly marked ballots, then complete vote capture is achieved, but the complexity and error rate of the process increase
Solution Approach 1:
The ballot processing system segments the adjudication task into two distinct parts: (1) automatically captured properly marked selections identified through barcode scanning, and (2) manually reviewed improperly marked selections requiring election official intervention. This segmentation allows the system to minimize manual entry to only the necessary contests while maintaining complete vote capture
Solution Approach 2:
The barcode serves as an intermediary carrier that bridges the paper ballot and the electronic voting system. It encodes the voting selections in a machine-readable format, allowing automatic transfer of information without manual intervention, thereby simplifying the overall processing system while ensuring accurate vote capture
3Productivity
If electronic voting systems are used to recreate improperly marked ballots, then speed is improved compared to purely manual methods, but human error in entering selections remains a risk
Solution Approach 1:
The improperly marked ballot essentially serves itself by providing the barcode that contains the encoding of its own properly marked selections. The system scans this self-provided information and automatically populates the electronic ballot, eliminating the need for human operators to manually transcribe selections, thereby both speeding up processing and eliminating transcription errors
Data Source
AI summary
Automated entry of voting selections that were properly marked on the paper ballot during ballot adjudication. A ballot processing system is configured to generate an optical, machine-readable code that includes data representative of the voting selections for all contests that were properly marked on the paper ballot. An electronic voting system is configured to read the code and present to the election official only contests having improper markings on the paper ballot (i.e., requiring adjudication).