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The ballot counters divide votes into sets of 50 and then pair off in two. One person reads the results from the ballot while the other records on the tally sheet. Most of the ballot counters are users are older. Because elections take place during the work day, most people available to count ballots are retired.
Audit Supervisors:
The audit supervisors aggregate the votes from the ballot counters. These supervisors are employees of the town and tend to run a large number of elections. They set up the elections and report results.
Needs & Goals
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Ballot Counters:
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- Because ballot counters have a cap on the number of hours they can work, they want to get the votes counted as quickly as possible. They would like to record votes both by race and by ballot. As a result, they need an efficient system which supports this functionality.
- This is a task for which accuracy and reliability are very important. As a result, the users aim to have a perfectly accurate ballot counting. They need a system which allows them to easily correct mistakes.
- Elections have very important results, so the users would like to clearly view running totals.
- Many of the users are new to this job and don't have much time to learn it. Hence they need a system which is easy to learn and repeat.
- Elections have varying numbers of candidates. Users want to be able to handle a large number of candidates easily.
- Write-ins are also a common occurrence. Ballot counters need a way to note that these occurred and also note that blank votes occurred.
Audit Supervisors:
- The audit supervisors are responsible for managing the entire election. They need to be able to set up the recording sheets with the correct candidates and races.
- They also need to make sure that no votes are counted that were not entered during polling hours, so they need a way to start and stop elections.
- They also are responsible for monitoring poll numbers to both report the data, and not any irregularities making sure information is being entered accurately. As a result, they would like to check the total number of votes entered on both precinct and county levels.
- They will need to be able to add totals total numbers of votes to make sure information is accurate.
- Audit supervisors need to have a way to deal with write-in votes and either record them, or change them to blank votes.
- Audit Supervisors are responsible for paying the hourly ballot counters Supervisors are paid per election, so they would like this process to be fast and efficient.