This website blog contains opinions of the owner about current and past processes as well as driving forces that are involved in our election processes.

Interested In Knowing A Root Cause Of The Problem ?

A Root Cause can be uncovered by looking at the past.

History of the Ballot – by National Museum of American History

Paper ballots

Voting in the 19th century usually involved casting a printed paper ballot. State election laws typically specified the dimensions and thickness of the paper, and the size of type to be used. The rest was left to the issuing parties, local party operatives and candidates resulting in various ballot forms and styles—and a potential for voter confusion and fraud.

The Blanket Ballot (a variation is still used today)

Developed in South Australia in the 1850s, the blanket ballot—listing all candidates for office regardless of party—was gradually adopted in the United States after 1888. The printing and distribution of such all-inclusive ballots became a function of government rather than competing parties. The voter typically marked the ballot in the privacy of a voting booth, sometimes guided by party symbols—like the eagle guarding a glass jar ballot box representing the Republican ticket of William McKinley and Garret A. Hobart, (shown below).

Gear and Lever

The gear-and-lever voting machine rendered the Australian ballot in steel. Later computerized punch card ballots became an acceptable alternative that allowed for the speedy tabulation and announcement of returns.

Butterfly Ballot

, The New Yorker, November 3, 1956

This ballot used Votomatic punch cards as the recorder medium that was counted in a counting machine. This ballot type brought in the “Hanging Chad” controversy that plagued the George W. Bush vs. Al Gore election.

The close presidential contest between Al Gore and George W. Bush came down to a struggle over the Florida vote. In Florida Bush led Gore by 930 votes out of six million votes cast. Gore asked for a recount by hand of ballots from four counties in which his support was believed to be strong. To conduct the recount in Palm Beach County, citizens organized into teams of two Republican and two Democratic Party counters and observers. A magenta-colored card is used to help identify the holes in the ballots.

Current Blanket Bubble Ballot

Though fill-in-the-bubble ballots have been used for thousands of elections, there are still potential flaws in this process. History has revealed ballot programming errors where the candidates were listed in one order and the scanner read and recorded the candidates in a different order. Requiring voters to use ink to mark their choice can lead to potential scanning errors if incidental errant marks are made. Third-party officials are then responsible for adjudicating any erroneous ballots. This adds more time, more labor and the potential for uncertainty. After all, to error is human.

In the United States our “Election Day” is a one-day event designated for voters to cast ballots for their desired candidates and issues. Voting has traditionally been performed “in-person” at local precincts. The concept of “absentee voting” was introduced in the late 1800’s due to wartime necessity.

History tells the Story

Obviously, the complicated Blanket Ballot makes it difficult for hand processing and fast results. It was not a problem back in AGRARIAN times i.e. 1900. As time marched on, people moved to cities and desires changed. The public wanted quick results and current news as the printing press, radio, and television pushed the envelope. An increasing population and women’s right to vote also weighed heavily on the time for poll workers to count increasing numbers of ballots. So new technologies emerged to deal with the Blanket ballot: Gear and Lever, Butterfly Ballot, Computers (like above) and Blanket Bubble Ballot and computer with scanners…. WHY?

The blanket ballot used in 1888 was nearly as complicated as it is today. Today, to properly hand count the blanket ballot requires significant time and labor. For election integrity, it requires 4 people to count a ballot: one caller, one witness of the caller’s call, 2 people independently marking the called vote on tally sheets with opposing parties represented for both the call and marking. The compared candidate’s totals of the two tally sheets must then be equal. If not, that batch of ballots is redone and recounted. – AVII.org

Have you figured out the Root cause?

THE BLANKET BALLOT BECOMES THE MAIN ROOT CAUSE, THE BIG ENABLER

The Blanket Ballot (used today) is obviously the major problem. In fact, my analysis shows it to be the ROOT central problem because it is the foundation that everything in the election rests upon. Like a crumbling foundation of a building causing many failures. So, we needed to ask the how, why, when, and where engineering questions.

How is the Blanket Ballot the ROOT problem? Be thinking of the election INTEGRITY !!!

• It was originally designed for the ease of the voters use ONLY! Little regard was given to the PROCESSING time requirements. In any system/process, balance/time is very very important. That is why all of the historical processing changes took place.
• Again Blanket Ballots take significant manpower to hand process and cannot be done the traditional way within the desired time constraints, unless precincts organize very large groups of volunteers or pay many workers. See the AVII.org process. How long can/will a precinct keep it up? People want EASY, SIMPLE, FAST!
• The Blanket Ballot is not user friendly for the voter or for the Processing team. If a voter makes a wrong decision on any of the candidates their only means to change their vote is to have the spoiled Ballot replaced and start over. If there is an errant mark made and the voter doesn’t turn it in then the Processing team will adjudicate the questionable ballot and the judge(s) make a decision on behalf of the voter….INTEGRITY?

Why ? Because it enables and drives other processes to change.

• Multiple fixes for the Blanket Ballot have and continues to change our culture! The public has become disengaged, with complex systems, computers/scanners and the “Authorities (County Clerks)” are now thought of as doing the election processing.
• One thing leads to another. The use of complex computer systems is being used to drive more complex elections. Elections are being combined into massive “combined” elections including; Federal, State, City, County, Judges, Propositions for State, County and City, School boards, where does it end? INTEGRITY? Think of the complex computerized systems and nefarious possibilities?
• All of which is not acceptable to the populace that wants integrity and quick results. They want to know the results are correct. The populace is seriously concerned about fixing the problems but at this point everyone is working INSIDE the box for solutions, YES, from an engineering standpoint they are “inside the box”. Many want to go back to traditional hand counting the blanket ballot. I agree it works for a small number of absentee ballots but for ALL ballots? NO, it will leave the traditional HC process vulnerable to the same forces of the past HISTORY with cries for quick results and with “authorities” wanting systems to meet “requirements”. In my experience going back and trying to use an old failed process to deal with the (Blanket Ballot), WILL FAIL AGAIN and will yield back to the simplest way to deal with the issue. In this case, back to the Blanket ballot being entered into computers/scanners.

When? Another major root problem driven by the Blanket Ballot

• Voting was designed by our founders to be a single Election Day. Now elections have turned into an Election “season” with many States using mail-in Ballots or allowing both in person or absentee voting. We need to get back to simple one day “decoupled” elections. A simple solution surrounding our election complexity is to have just the Federal election isolated to its own day. The States could be held independently in the same way, one day. Thus leaving the County and City elections by themselves. The singular elections would also result in a much more focused informed voter with their desired outcomes. INTEGRITY?
• Another major related issue is an out of control voter registration process and mail-in voting. Compare the INTEGRITY of these two processes, 1) Current, absentee mail-in Blanket Ballots being sent out to voters listed on a constantly changing computerized voter file. 2) Proposed – return to the past, have traditional precinct one day elections where voters are required to provide an “Official Voter ID” to the precinct judge. The voter would then sign-in before receiving a Ballot and the Election judge would validate voters’ signature against the Voter File signature, thus providing logical confirmation.

Where?

• Elections are being centralized into voting centers. Another planned idea to take control from the public which results in long lines, confusion and elections operated by the “authorities” not the public! It is now taking days/weeks/months to count the votes! Reverting back to the past precinct process would solve this problem. It becomes very difficult to pull off nefarious activity in your own neighborhood because most neighbors will not stand for it. Again, elections should be reinstated back to neighborhood precincts where voter Id’s are checked and no more than 1500 voters are assigned to a precinct. Processing Ballot Bills and absentee ballots could easily be completed in the precinct.

The computer/scanner voting systems

My engineering view of todays’ complex computerized elections systems is, there are just too many variables/ levers which can be pulled inside the black box systems. It becomes impossible to build integrity, transparency and control of complex computerized election systems. Especially, those that are designed to insert the blanket ballot, scan it and DIGITIZE the vote into bits and bytes!

BALLOT BILLS ELECTION SYSTEM ENGINEERING AND LOGIC

Next up – Building the Ballot Bills solution using requirements

Transparency and integrity solution requirements, in order of importance.

• Eliminate digitized vote counting
• Replace the Blanket Ballot.
• Ballot(s) voting and processing with no transferring of the vote to another medium.
• Ballot physically present from Start to Finish and is the final transparent proof.
• Transparency in processing that can be videoed from start to finish.
• Fast and accurate results that can be re-verified/audited quickly.
• Easy to use ballot, not confusing, easy to read, vote and process.
• Eliminate issues of the voters/ intent. Examples; incomplete marked bubble, pen used, spoiled ballots, etc.
• Take human error out of the process, mechanize the physical sorting and counting process.
• Ensure time, cost, and space requirements are as low as possible.
• Assure every ballot is being checked for counterfeits using multiple characteristics.
• Manual processing that could be done by High School Students with oversight. (build citizenship knowledge)
• Process that can be utilized for most all voters-handicap, absentee, blind.
• Provide multiple back-up audit capabilities.

Most important are the first 4 , these combined are necessary to bring integrity to the counting processing.

The only requirement that Ballot Bills cannot fully meet is utilization for all voters! I see this issue as one that can be dealt with by using the “Traditional Blanket Ballot” for absentee voters and for some handicap voters. Ballot Bills can be printed with braille for the blind. Handicap persons could be helped with additional equipment or personnel.

Think about it, can our election systems today meet the above requirements?

Solution – The Ballot Bills election system is an OUTSIDE the box simple physical solution.

So, why Ballot Bills?

• Ballot Bills remove the need for physically marking a blanket ballot. Unless for write-in votes.
• They give the voter ability to change their vote anytime up until they turn in their results.
• Ballot Bills remove the need for programmable scanning and the need for adjudication.
• They rely on a simple sorting process for both voters and processing, providing physical proof positive results.
• Ballot Bills allow for quick auditing because only questioned Ballot Bills need be recounted, satisfying laws and claims refuting results.
• Ballot Bills do not support “Rank Choice Voting.”
• Ballot Bills provide a balanced approach to voting and processing, as the processing is very quick and accurate.

With Ballot Bills, we are no longer auditing the technology! We are directly auditing the votes!

When Ballot Bill votes are counted, they are treated like cash, either manually sorted then counted using a currency counter or sorted and counted using a currency counter. Banks, businesses, and casinos around the world rely on the accuracy and efficiency of currency counting machines. These machines are able to detect counterfeit bills as well as instantly provide totals. This equipment may be used in the same way to count votes. Ballot Bills help to negate human error at all steps during the “voting and tallying” process as well as produce credible and transparent physical results.

The Ballot Bills election solution is a complete detour around the nightmare complex systems we have today. One deviation is that we would use the Traditional HC process for absentee ballots only.

LET’S COMPARE the HAND PROCESSING of the BLANKET BALLOT to MANUAL PROCESSING of BALLOT BILLS

View the following hand processing “Blanket Ballot” video to see the Mock County Texas results processing. Then compare that process to the “Ballot Bills” Processing of the same Mock County Texas results.

First up pictured link is short version of the Traditional Blanket ballot “Modified” hand-processing video of the Mock County election. “Modified” = 2 person team + electronic counters instead of the Traditional 4 person team process utilized in the AVII process. AVII.org

Result of the Blanket ballot processing – 250 Ballots took 1 Hr. 4 Min. or 640 worker minutes

Below Modified Mock County election long version videos link

https://mockcountytx.us/election-results – This link takes you to the full set of Mock County Election videos

Now Lets look at Ballot Bills processing of the Same 250 ballot Mock County election

Ballot Bills – 250 ballots used 4 workers that took 43 min. 18 sec. or 173.2 worker minutes!!! This quick and inexpensive process can be used in most Precincts.

Comparison: Ballot Bills processing is 3.7 times MORE efficient than the above “modified” 2 worker teams hand count ballot processing utilizing Blanket “bubble” Ballots. Using the AVII process – Results unknown, BUT, best estimate is the Ballot Bills process should be about 7.4 times more efficient.

In the Ballot Bills Demonstration we mentioned a Stop Gap Measure to catch mistakes. – see below

The below Counter would differentiate Ballot Bills, so that errors made in sorting can be isolated in the 2nd or reject pocket. See/watch example below:

Next Level Totally Mechanized- Using Ballot Bills could yield rapid, transparent, and accurate results, with this equipment !!!

Future Ballot Bills processing has the potential to be highly automatic. Doing both sorting and counting could take just minutes. Processed results are tangible counted stacks of Ballot Bills that represent individual candidate or issue counts. This may be used in a very large precinct or County processing.

PRECINCT VOTING USING BALLOT BILLS

Video showing comparison of Ballot Bills voting vs. Traditional Bubble Ballot.

Sort/Count Process using fully automatic Banking Equipment

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Ballot Sort/Count at Precinct “Manual Process” 

Summary Information

Over the last two and a half centuries, our ballots have grown in complexity, causing challenges with providing efficient results. The original method of manually tallying votes is no longer efficient or practical with our blanket bubble ballot which is currently “coupled” all together: i.e. Federal, State ballot. Methods of punch cards and mechanical lever voting machines have been retired. Direct-recording electronic voting machines (touch screen voting) lacks the ability to produce an auditable record and many States have adopted some sort of audit law. The most common process to count votes for our current elections is based on 1960’s optical scan vote tallying technology. A quick look at the blanket bubble ballot below reveals its complexity and the need for this type of ballot to require computers and programmable software to yield results. The Ballot Bills election system is a simple solution that provides a better solution for both the voter and the processing of the votes. It also provides a detour around many of todays’ election issues. The Ballot Bills election system would provide the public a Future with INTEGRITY.

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