MARYLAND Blank Ballots TwoPageBallotSummary

Two Page Ballots Explanation
October 27, 2023
1|P age
Two Page Ballot Explanation
Question: How do the Scanners handle the multi page ballot?
The DS200 and DS850 handle a multi page ballot the same way. If page one of a multi page
ballot is inserted into the machine the Public Count will increment by one as well as the
Protective Count. If a page two ballot is inserted into the machine then the Public Count
will NOT increment, but the Protective Count will increment by one. By only having the
Public Counter increment on the 1st page, it prevents the Public Counter from becoming
greater than the Total Registered Voters in a Precinct. If the Public Counter incremented
for each page in a multi page ballot, than your Ballots Cast could double or triple
accordingly.
The Public Counter and the Protective Counter will always increment by one. If the 1st
Ballot Style on the ExpressVote Card has no votes, they will still increment by one. If the 1st
Ballot Style has no votes, it is considered a blank ballot.
On both scanner’s Result Reports, the sheets processed is the actual number of ballot
sheets the scanner processed during the voting session.
As an example, the following test deck was prepared.
Page 1 Equivalent
Page 2 Equivalent
Item 1: Item 2: Item 3: Item 4: Item 5:

Page 1 paper ballot where all Page 1 paper ballot where all Page 1 paper ballot where all Page 2 paper ballot where all ExpressVote Card where
first candidates were first candidates were selected first candidates were selected contests were undervoted the page 1 equivalent was
selected in all contests in all contests in all contests undervoted and the page
2 equivalent had the top
candidate selected in each
contest
2|P age
After scanning the test deck, the below report is printed from the DS850.
Total Sheets Processed: 5 represents the test deck of 5 sheets of paper that were scanned
Total Ballots Cast: 4 represents items 1, 2, 3, and 5
Blank Sheets Cast: 2 represents item 4 and the page 1 equivalent of item 5
3|P age
Question: How does ERM handle the multi page ballot?
ERM is going to process the votes the same way from both scanners (DS200 and DS8500).
The Ballots Cast Statistical Counter will be reflective of the quantity of Page 1 ballots that
were scanned by either machine. If only Page 2 was scanned, then the Ballots Cast Report
will not reflect those pages.
In instances where Page 1 is not received from the voter (i.e., the voter only returned the
2nd page), some jurisdictions choose to scan a blank Page 1 ballot to increment the Ballots
Cast statistic. This procedure will also increment the Blank Ballots statistic. Alternatively,
these instances can be tracked manually and reconciled against the voting system
statistics.
Since the ExpressVote ballots will always have a Page 1 on the ExpressVote card, the
Ballots Cast Statistical Counter will always increment by one.
This number will also be apparent when processing the memory sticks into ERM.
In this test scenario, 12 sheets of paper were cast on the DS200. Nine of those ballot sheets
were Page 1 which you see in the below report under BALLOTS CAST. Of those nine 1st
Page Ballots we voted, six were Blank Ballots as noted in the Summary Report below. Of
those six blank ballots, three were the 1st Page of the ExpressVote Card.
4|P a ge
It is possible to receive the warning message: "Votes exceed ballots cast" in ERM if you
ever do an update where a precinct has more page twos than page ones. This is typically a
very concerning message, but not in this case. It happens because the Ballots Cast counter
is based on page one. ERM is running a check where; for each contest, it totals the votes
cast for all candidates plus the number of overs/unders and divides by the vote for
number. If this number is greater than the Ballots Cast, you will get the warning. If you
have more page twos and there is a precinct wide contest on page 2, the vote total from
that contest WILL BE greater than the Ballots Cast (from Page One). This warning can be
overridden and will not affect the results coming into ERM.
ERM does not create a Warning Message if the Total Ballots Cast is greater than the Total
Registered Voters. It allows the results to update appropriately. Please note that there
should never be more Ballots Cast than Total Registered Voters unless designed to do so.
Question: How does ElectionWare process the multi page ballot?
The Paper ballots show a record/image for each ballot sheet that was processed in an
election. So if a voter only voted Page One in a two page ballot style, Produce will show one
image with one Cast Vote Record. This also holds true if a voter only voted Page Two of a
two page ballot style.
The ExpressVote Card is a printed summary of the ballot. In a given election, a ballot may
be comprised of 1, 2, 3, 4+ sheets of paper therefore you may have 1, 2, 3, 4+ Cast Vote
Records assigned to a single ballot. The ExpressVote summary card is no different. The
ExpressVote summary card is 1, 2, 3, 4+ regular sheets represented on a single piece of
paper. Basically, the # of sheets that a ballot is made up of will be the # of Cast Vote
Records produced and then further represented in ElectionWare.
5|P a ge
Question: How does EXP\ENR handle the multi page ballot?
EXP is reporting the ERM statistics and vote counts. It gets the statistics and vote counts from
ERM data. Therefore, The ERM statistic BALLOTS CAST – TOTAL on the EL45.lst will match the
EXP element, totalBallotsCast in the EXP XML file.
See highlighted items below with equal counts.
VOTES PERCENT
PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 56) . . . . . 56 100.00

REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL ................. 92,466
REGISTERED VOTERS - Republican . . . 40,697 44.01
REGISTERED VOTERS - Democratic . . . 32,132 34.75
REGISTERED VOTERS - Non-Partisan. . . 19,637 21.24
BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL ........................ 35,247
BALLOTS CAST - Republican ................... 20,606 58.46
BALLOTS CAST - Democratic.................... 12,779 36.26
BALLOTS CAST - Non-Partisan . . . . 1,862 5.28
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Owner xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="file:/C:/ELECDATA/ElectionResults_MD_EXP4108.xsd" id="22"
name="ERM Results XML File version EXP4108">
<ReportTime>2016-10-06T19:20:46Z</ReportTime>
<PartyMap>
<Party id="1" altId="" altId2="" abbrv="REP" name="Republican"
partyBallotsCast="20606" partyRegistration="40697" partyCastPercentage="50.63"
partyReportedRegistration="40697" partyReportedPercentage="50.63"></Party>
<Party id="2" altId="" altId2="" abbrv="DEM" name="Democratic"
<Party id="3" altId="" altId2="" abbrv="NON" name="Non-Partisan"
</PartyMap>
<JurisdictionMap totalJurisdictions="1" reportingJurisdictions="1" percentReported="100.00">
<Jurisdiction id="22" title="Washington County" typeId="2" totalBallotsCast="35247"
totalRegistration="92466" totalCastPercentage="38.12" reportedRegistration="92466"
reportedPercentage="38.12" totalPrecincts="56" precinctsReported="56"
precinctsReportedPercentage="100.00">
Since ENR uses the XML created by EXP, the information EXP is generating from ERM is being passed along
to ENR. Concluding that ENR will demonstrate the same numbers as ERM as results are being loaded into
ERM, and EXP is generated.
6|P a ge

MARYLAND Blank Ballots TwoPageBallotSummary

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

MARYLAND Blank Ballots TwoPageBallotSummary

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

MARYLAND Blank Ballots TwoPageBallotSummary

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Two Page Ballots Explanation

October 27, 2023

As an example, the following test deck was prepared.

Item 1: Item 2: Item 3: Item 4: Item 5:

Question: How does ElectionWare process the multi page ballot?

See highlighted items below with equal counts.

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 56) . . . . . 56 100.00

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

You might also like