[E-voting] Question on optical scan

[Brian O'Byrne]

I'd like to pose a question for the group, if I may, on optical scan systems.

As I understand optical scan systems the voter places a mark representing their
vote on a pirce of pre-printed paper. This is then scanned and the scanning
system decides whether the vote appears to be valid. It may also present the
voter with a copy of the vote on a screen, to verify that the scanner has
correctly read the voter's intent.

The advantages include:
- An undisputed paper trail. The paper is the vote and there is no confusion or
ambiguity.
- The possibility of using the scanned records to get a counted result quickly.
- The possibility to show that the scanned records match the votes, either by
random sampling or by a full paper-based recount.
- A reduction in accidental spoiled ballots. Spoils can be recognised as such
before the voter leaves the polling station without violating privacy.

The question is: Has anyone seen or designed a optical scan ballot for an STV
election?

It seems easy enough to design one of these for ballots where you choose one of
a number of options. Put a box beside each option and have the voter mark one
box. That is simple and reliable.

It seems less easy where the voter has to express an order of preference. Do you
have many boxes beside each candidate (mark the leftmost box for first
preference) or do you have OCR that tries to read numbers, or some other
system?
I'd be concerned that OCR has a fairly high failure rate, and the many boxes
option is confusing for voters.

Does anyone have experience of this?

Thanks,
Brian.
-- 
Brian O'Byrne, Statesoft Ltd.
Tel: +353 1 449 8151, +353 86 240 4719
http://www.statesoft.ie/