Creating Test Ballots
Now posted in the links at right under the Best Practices section is a new document for the professional election supervisor. It is a fifty page guide on how to create test ballots for your voting machine to see if it is properly calibrated.
This is the product of software tester, John Washburn of Wisconsin. John describes the difficulty of testing software whose code cannot be inspected, and persuades his readers that a good tester is both thorough and malicious, taking nothing for granted.
For example, John’s test deck requires one ballot to be blacked out completely–except where the voter is directed to make his marks. Those parts are left unmarked. When John’s test ballot goes through the scanner, it should show no votes. This proves the scanner is reading only in the places where voters are expected to make marks.
Washburn’s exacting test procedure is not followed in current practice. “As near as I can tell election departments use no formal or written test procedures anywhere in the country,” Washburn says. Certainly that is true in Iowa, where state law refers to testing 300 ballots or testing 10 ballots. Washburn demonstrates that the number of test ballots depends on the complexity of the particular ballot being tested.
Washburn warns against testing equipment in “test mode.” He also implores election judges to create their own test decks rather than use something provided by the vendor or the programmer of the counting equipment.
The test deck directions apply to both paper ballot scanners and touchscreen devices.
If this manual were being supplied by a voting machine company, I doubt you could get it for free. But it is offered by Mr. Washburn as a public service. You can download it here at no cost.
Happy testing. Here’s hoping Iowa can avoid the counting problems we have already seen in Florida, Texas, and Illinois in the last week.