Electronic Voting: Voting Station

Your Voting Station on Election Day

	Getting Started
	After checking in at your precinct, a poll worker will give you a voter access card. Take your voter access card into any available voting station. Insert the card into the slot at the right of the screen. Place the card face up with the arrow pointing toward the slot. Push it in until it clicks.

Once the card is properly inserted your ballot instructions will be displayed. You can enlarge the ballot type to make it easier to see. Voters who cannot read the screen can use voice-guided instructions. The screen may also be tilted to make it easier to see from different heights.

Read the instructions carefully, then touch “Next” for your ballot to be displayed and to begin your selections

	Making Selections
	To make selections, simply touch the screen with your finger or other object. You can move forward on your ballot by touching “next” or backward by touching “Previous”. To change your selection, touch the box a second time, then make a new selection.
		The touch-screen ballot system will not let you vote for too many candidates for an office or to vote both “yes” and “no” on a referendum question (that is, to “over-vote”). For example, if you attempt to vote for two presidential candidates you will be alerted of the need to only vote for one presidential candidate. This ensures your vote for that office or on that question will be valid and counted.

Review Your Choices

A summary page will show at the end of your ballot. Races that appear in red on the summary page indicate that race has been “under-voted” (that is, you may still select a candidate for that office or vote on that referendum). Touching the screen on that race will return you to that under-voted race and allow you to complete making selections if you want to.

From the summary page you can move from place to place on your ballot, changing any previous selection – but only before touching “Cast Ballot”.

	Casting Your Ballot
	When you are done making selections and have no more changes, cast your ballot by touching “Cast Ballot” at the bottom of the summary page. IMPORTANT: Once you have touched "Cast Ballot" at the end of the summary screen no more changes can be made! You have completed voting.
		Your voter access card will eject after you have completed voting. Return your voter access card to the poll workers.

Keeping Your Vote Secure

To ensure the privacy of your vote, your identity is not recorded on the voter access card or in the voting station. Only the votes will be recorded. No one can know how you voted.

After you cast your ballot, your votes are immediately stored in the voting unit in two separate places. One location is part of the unit itself. The second location is a memory card that is locked into the voting unit during the election. At the close of the election, the memory card is removed and used to count the votes. The two internal sources plus the memory card comprise a two-part audit trail, ensuring that every vote is recorded and counted the way the voter cast them.

A back-up power supply ensures that once the system has been activated for an election, the contents of the audit record will be preserved during any power interruption to the system until processing and data reporting have been completed. If there is a power failure, your vote remains intact.