Election ReadinessImportant
note – The Secretary of State’s
office presents this information as a supplemental overview to help catch
common procedural problems; it does not represent all the steps necessary to
prepare for an election.
1. Voting & Tabulation Equipment
□ Do you have enough equipment on hand for this election? Remember to include the equipment you’ll use for Early Voting.
□ Test each voting machine. Is it working properly? Are the batteries charged? Is the RTAL paper roll loaded correctly?
□
Do you have acceptance testing (A/T) paperwork
on each piece of equipment?
(This will help document that the purchased equipment is the same equipment
that is state-certified)
¡ ADA iVotronics ¡ M-100’s (if applicable)
¡ Communication Packs ¡ M-650’s (if applicable)
□ Have you tested your Tabulation Laptop?
o Is it working properly? Is the battery charged? Is the ERM software loaded and cleared from the previous election? Follow the steps in the user manual.
o If not, contact your SOS Election Coordinator immediately for assistance.
See the attached State Coordinator Map for contact
information
□ Is all equipment stored in a secure (locked) location?
2. Supplies
□ Do you have enough supplies on hand to conduct an election?
□ Have you checked your paper inventory?
o Ballots: Absentee, Provisional and Election Day
o Paper rolls: RTAL, Communication Pack, M-100
Contact ES&S to re-order
See the attached ES&S Support Tree
for contact information
3. Poll Workers & Training
□ Have you contacted local colleges or high schools to invite students to serve as Election Day poll workers/Pages?
□ Did your election officials complete the mandatory training from the State Board of Election Commissioners (required by state statute and administrative rules)?
□ Do you have enough poll workers available and confirmed to work on Election Day?
□ Do you have at least two poll workers at each poll with a strong working knowledge of your voting equipment? (Make sure at least two poll workers from each polling site are trained on the iVotronic DRE and/or M100 optical scanner.)
o If
you can’t find at least one poll worker who is well trained on the iVotronic or
the
M-100, call your Secretary of State Election Coordinator to schedule refresher
training.
See the attached State Coordinator Map for contact information
o For other equipment and software refresher
training, please notify
ES&S customer service.
See the attached ES&S Support Tree for contact information
□ Are poll workers trained and ready to complete the following duties?
o Set up of the iVotronic and M-100
o Plug in the machine
o Use the battery reset button, the master reset button and the RTAL paper roll tension release lever
o Check each compact flash card (Is it inserted correctly?)
o Check each PCMCIA card (Is it inserted correctly?)
o Open the polls and print zero tapes
o Handle situations such as walk-a-ways and cancelling a ballot
o Handle voters who are in line when the polls close at 7:30 p.m.
o Close the polls and print totals tapes
o Change the RTAL paper roll
o Change the M-100 Paper roll
o Change the paper roll in the communication pack
o Secure
RTAL paper rolls, PEBs and CF cards that are to be returned
to election central
o Recollect on the supervisor PEB’s
o Process provisional voters vs. regular voters
o Follow
the county’s set up diagrams to ensure privacy when using
the voting equipment
o Determine who to call for help (whether it should be the County Clerk or the County Board of Election Commissioners)
o Follow troubleshooting procedures
4. Security Procedures
□ Do you have an established chain of custody plan for all equipment, election media, ballots, spent RTAL paper rolls, etc.?
□ Do you know the procedure for reporting a security incident?
□ Have you developed a plan for delivering the voting systems to the polls and collecting from the polls?
o Who will transport the equipment and how?
o When should the equipment arrive?
o Where is each piece of equipment going?
o Will the destination be available for delivery?
5. Coding Forms
□ Have you completed all the necessary Coding Forms and submitted them to ES&S? Must be sent to ES&S no later than 24 hours after your ballot draw.
□ Have you sent a pronunciation guide to ES&S?
o The
Secretary of State’s office will submit a pronunciation guide to ES&S
for all federal, state, and district candidates.
6. Ballot Printing
□ Who will print your ballots -- ES&S or a local printer?
o If using a local printer, both you and the printer should follow ES&S’s printing procedures to ensure that paper ballots are correct and will tabulate correctly.
□ What is the ship date and tracking number for the ballot order?
7. Audio
□ Will you use the recording services of ES&S or a local audio vendor?
o If
using a local audio vendor, both you and the audio vendor should know the
correct process for working with ES&S to ensure that the audio is correct
and programming
is not compromised in any way.
□ Have you sent pronunciation guides to your audio vendor?
o If you are using ES&S, the state will submit a pronunciation guide for all federal, state, and district candidates, as well as state ballot issues. Each county must submit the pronunciation guide for all local candidates and local ballot issues.
o If you are using a local audio vendor, you are responsible for submitting all completed pronunciation guides (federal, state and local).
8. Proofing
□ Send proofs by e-mail for a faster coding/programming/proofing process.
o Layout PDF proofs first, DRE screen shots second
□ Who will proof each PDF (layout)? Commissioners? County Clerk? Staff?
o It is important to have at least a two person proofing process.
o The proofers should not be the same people who filled out coding forms.
□ Has someone checked each proof??
o Be sure to carefully proof each ballot style or precinct ballot and clearly mark changes on all proofs before returning to ES&S.
o All corrections must be marked the first time the proof is returned to ES&S.
o When you receive the corrected ballots, it is necessary to proof the entire ballot again, not just the changes.
□ You must approve proofs no later than 48 hours after you receive the final and correct version.
o Did your designated proofers check each final ballot style or precinct ballot prior to approval?
o Did your designated proofers check each DRE screen shot prior to approval?
9. HAVA/State Required Postings
□ Do you have an adequate number of posters to display at the polling site on Election Day?
o “Voting Rights”
o “State & Federal Election Laws”
o “1-2-3 Vote!”
If not, contact your Secretary
of State Election Coordinator to re-order (at least
30 days prior to Early Voting).
See the attached State
Coordinator Map for contact information
10. Site Support
□ In addition to Election Day, do you need Site Support for logic and accuracy testing?
(Available through the Arkansas Department of Information Systems or ES&S)
□ Do you need Site Support for the election?
o To schedule ES&S Site Support
See the attached ES&S Support Tree for contact
information
o To schedule DIS Site Support
Contact B.J. Wyrick, DIS Customer Service Representative, 501.682.4907
(Ballots must go out 35 days prior to the election)
11. Equipment/Media/Testing
□ Did you receive enough absentee ballots for each ballot style or precinct?
□ Did you receive Zip disks and/or PCMCIA cards to perform logic and accuracy testing (L&A)?
□ Did you complete L&A testing on the paper absentee ballots before sending them to voters?
□ Backup Plan
o If you do not have or did not complete the items above, is there a backup plan for sending absentee ballots on time?
o Do
you have corrected proofs to photocopy and mail to voters? (These ballots can
only
be hand counted.)
(For General and
Preferential Primary, begin 15 days prior to Election Day; for Presidential
Preferential Primary, General Runoff, and School Elections, begin 7 days prior
to Election Day)
12. Equipment/Media/Testing
□ Did you receive PEB’s, ERM/Election definition disk, Zip disks and/or PCMCIA cards to perform logic and accuracy testing?
□ Did you complete logic and accuracy testing (L&A) on all electronic vote tabulation devices (optical scan), paper ballots, DRE’s and tabulation software programming at least 5 days prior to the start of early voting?
□
Did you fax an L&A Certification Memo to your Secretary of State Election Coordinator?
Find it under
“Documents” at www.votenaturally.org/for_election_officials.html.
□ Did you clear and test each DRE with election media that has the same EQC code as the current election?
□ Backup Plan
o If you cannot complete the items above, is there a backup plan for starting early voting on time?
o Do you have corrected proofs to photocopy for early voting? (These ballots can only be counted by hand.)
13. Chain of Custody & Security
□ Do you have a procedure to secure/lock, close and seal the voting machine at the end of each day during early voting?
□ Do you have a procedure to secure the voting media in a tamper-proof location separate from the voting machine each night during early voting?
14. Equipment/Media Testing
□ Did you receive PEB’s, ERM/Election definition disk, Zip disks and/or PCMCIA cards to perform logic and accuracy testing?
□ Did you complete logic and accuracy testing (L&A) on all electronic vote tabulation devices (optical scan), paper ballots, DRE’s and tabulation software programming at least 5 days prior to election day?
□ Did you clear and test each DRE with media that has the same EQC code as the current election?
15. Communication Plan for Election Day
□ Instruct each polling location to contact your county’s Election Central when the poll is open and running, then again when the poll is closed.
□ When all your polls have reported in, notify your Secretary of State Election Coordinator.
□ Do you need technical assistance?
o Call your Site Support first.
o If you did not schedule Site Support, contact the ES&S Election Day toll-free number.
o You may also contact your Secretary of State Election Coordinator for help.
□ Do you know when to contact the State Board of Election Commissioners vs. ES&S or the Secretary of State’s office?
□ Before going home on election night, have you notified your Secretary of State Election Coordinator whether or not you have completed tabulation?
16. Chain of Custody & Security
□
Do you have procedures in place to secure/lock,
close and seal the voting machine at the end of Election Day?
□
Do you have procedures in place to secure the
voting media in a tamper-proof location separate from the voting machine until
transported to election central?
17. Run Off
□ Will your county have a run-off election?
o If yes, submit coding forms to ES&S right away and proceed with coding, programming, proofing and printing process (beginning with Step 5 on Page 3).
18. Audit Data
□ Did you collect and archive the audit data from each voting machine and each vote tabulation device?
19. Election Night Reporting (ENR) and Certification
□ Did you complete the Election Night Reporting requirements?
□ Did you sign the election certification abstract that is created from the Election Night Reporting system and send to the Secretary of State’s office?
20. Chain of Custody & Security
□ Following the election, have you accounted for all voting devices?
□ Have you confirmed that the equipment has not been tampered with during transport?
□ Has your designee signed off on the return of all equipment and peripherals?
□ Are the machines returned to storage and secured?