Contact: Mark Church, Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder
Alternate: David Tom, Elections Manager
(Redwood City, CA) In preparation for the Special Brisbane School District Election on April 10, 2012, the county’s Elections Office will begin logic and accuracy (L & A) testing of the eSlate voting system equipment at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, March 9 at the Elections Office at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo. According to Mark Church, Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Record for San Mateo County, the testing will take approximately one day and members of the public are encouraged to drop by the Elections Office to observe the testing process.
Prior to every election, the L & A testing process is performed to ensure that the voting system’s vote counting software works properly, guaranteeing that the vote count will be accurate.
“L&A testing is absolutely fundamental in the preparation of an election,” explained Church. “The accuracy component of the test confirms that the voting selections made by the voter are correctly recorded, and the logic component of the test confirms that the recorded votes are correctly counted,” he added.
The first phase of the L & A testing process targets the electronic votes cast on the eSlate voting machines. The elections staff uses “test” versions of the English, Spanish and Chinese ballots on the voting machines. During this first phase, the Elections Office ensures that all potential voter choices are tested for accuracy. Accordingly, this portion of the testing process focuses on voters declining to vote, attempting to vote both yes and no, or choosing either yes or no on the measure. This phase is passed only when there is a perfect match between the test votes cast counts and the predetermined test vote counts.
The second phase of L & A testing will target paper ballot voting. The test is equally rigorous, using the identical process of marking ballots according to the test matrices. The paper ballots used for testing are clearly identified as “test” ballots. The votes marked on the paper ballots are counted by running the ballots through a digital scanner-tabulator that operates with the voting system’s BallotNow vote counting software. BallotNow accepts voting marks within the predetermined space on the ballot and counts them. The L&A test is passed only when there is a perfect match between the test votes cast counts and the predetermined test vote counts. This phase of testing begins after the first phase is completed.
In a separate testing process, every voting machine will be subjected to functional testing in which the elections staff confirms that the machine is loaded with the correct system software and firmware, as certified by the Secretary of State. As well, this testing process will confirm that every dial, button, connector, and other hardware component of the voting machines are operating properly.
After successfully passing all testing processes, 28 eSlate voting machines will be deployed for this election, at 2 polling places on Election Day, and at one Voting Center site. The Voting Center site, for this election will be located at 40 Tower Road in San Mateo and will allow for voting during the 29 days prior to Election Day.
For more information about the April 10, 2012 Special Brisbane School District Election, go online at www.shapethefuture.org or call 650.312.5222.
The press release is displayed in its original format. San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Elections website now resides at www.smcacre.org