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A solution for Minneapolis IRV-STV Elections

A solution for Minneapolis IRV-STV Elections. TrueBallot, Inc. 3 Bethesda Metro Center Suite 700 Bethesda MD 20814 Caleb Kleppner 203-376-4080 cell caleb@trueballot.com. Overview of presentation. TrueBallot, Inc. The 2009 Minneapolis municipal election The TrueBallot solution

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A solution for Minneapolis IRV-STV Elections

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  1. A solution for Minneapolis IRV-STV Elections TrueBallot, Inc. 3 Bethesda Metro Center Suite 700 Bethesda MD 20814 Caleb Kleppner 203-376-4080 cell caleb@trueballot.com

  2. Overview of presentation • TrueBallot, Inc. • The 2009 Minneapolis municipal election • The TrueBallot solution • Security, verification and certification • Demonstration, Q&A and discussion

  3. TrueBallot, Inc. • History and Clientele • Founded in 1995 by John Seibel and Nick Koumoutseas • Public sector experience • Takoma Park, Maryland (IRV election) • 2008 New Mexico Democratic Presidential Primary • California special district elections • Other sectors include labor unions, homeowner associations, cooperatives, associations, pension funds, universities and others.

  4. Ranked-choice voting experience • TrueBallot staff: • Have conducted dozens of ranked-choice elections, including both instant runoff voting and single transferable vote elections, both public and private sector, with as many as 100,000 eligible voters. • Wrote the San Francisco ranked-choice voting charter amendment and assisted with all facets of the implementation of RCV from 2004-2007, including voter education.

  5. Ranked-choice voting experience (cont.) • TrueBallot staff: • Developed the RCV testing protocols used by federal and state testers to test the SF system • Developed Burlington, Vermont’s IRV voter education and pollworker training program and oversaw the testing of Burlington’s voting equipment.

  6. Ranked-choice voting experience (cont.) • TrueBallot staff have: • Conducted Takoma Park, Maryland’s first citywide IRV election for mayor and city council. • More experience with ranked-choice elections than any other vendor in the country.

  7. 2009 Minneapolis IRV-STV election: Parameters • Election date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009. • ~131 precincts, 20-40 ballot types. • ~5 IRV/STV races, possible ballot questions. • Double-sided, 8.5” x 14” ballot. • Approximately 80,000 votes expected to be cast.

  8. 2009 Minneapolis IRV-STV election: Election day • No change to ballot format or polling place procedures. • Ballots are counted on the ES&S M100s with error notification for overvotes (duplicate rankings) and blank ballots. • At close of polls, ballots are secured and transported to the post-election scanning center.

  9. The TrueBallot solution • Scanning • Processing • Reviewing and interpreting images • Write-ins • Counting and exporting rankings • IRV-STV tallies

  10. Scanning • TrueBallot uses off-the-shelf image scanners to produce digital photographs of every ballot. • We automatically print cover sheets for each batch of ballots, bundle the ballots with cover sheets, and return them to city custody. • Using multiple scanners, we would scan, review and tally ballots in a single day (or overnight if desired).

  11. Processing • As ballots are being imaged, our software processes the images and extracts the voting information – which choices were selected by the voter. • This data is stored in a database that becomes part of the election archive.

  12. Reviewing and interpreting • After the images are processed, the data and images are imported into our reviewing / auditing application, TrueReview™. • Allows the user to review how each ballot is counted and to correct any case where the software was unable to correctly interpret the ballot. • Produces a preliminary count of 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices. • Displays rankings for each IRV-STV race on the ballot.

  13. Write-ins • Write-ins are easily handled in TrueReview with a pop-up window for easy data entry. • Write-ins can be tallied as a group in the IRV-STV tallies. • Votes for individual write-in candidates can be tracked and tallied separately for 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice totals as well as in the IRV-STV tallies.

  14. Counting and exporting rankings • TrueReview automatically generates the rankings for each ballot. • Allows seamless export of rankings for conducting the official IRV-STV tallies.

  15. Counting and exporting rankings (cont.) • The complete set of rankings for each IRV or STV race is exported as a text file for tallying. • This completes the challenging part of the election.

  16. IRV-STV tallies • The easy parts of the IRV-STV election are the actual IRV-STV tallies. • Once you have all the rankings, you can easily tally results in a spreadsheet or database program. • Or you can use the free, open source STV-tallying software used by Cambridge (MA) and Burlington (VT). • TrueBallot includes IRV and STV tallies for our elections at no additional charge.

  17. IRV-STV tallies (cont.) • Cambridge and Burlington’s tallying software is fast and robust: • It can handle many “flavors” of IRV/STV, including standard options for skipped and duplicate rankings • It can be programmed for any specific Minneapolis tallying rules. • The software has been tested with IRV tallies with over 1 million ballots. • Tallied data from San Francisco’s 2005 Assessor race with 225,000 ballots in 15 seconds. • Produces round-by-round results in html format for easy posting on the City’s website along with several auditing reports.

  18. IRV-STV tallies (cont.)

  19. Security, verification and certification • TrueBallot combines the best of paper ballots with matching, redundant, electronic records. • Our record of an election consists of: • Original paper ballots with batch covers showing number of ballots, scanner number, and date/time that scanning was completed. • The set of digital images of the ballots. • The original database showing how the computer interpreted each ballot; and

  20. Security, verification and certification (cont.) • Our record of an election also includes: • The final database showing how each ballot was counted after review. • The count of raw 1st, 2nd 2nd and 3rd choices produced by TrueReview™ • The text files containing the rankings. • All of the output and auditing reports from the IRV-STV tallies. • Ability to reconcile this data with vote totals from the M100s. • All of this data is burned to CD-ROM at the conclusion of our work.

  21. Security, verification and certification (cont.) • TrueBallot’s system is “self-verifying.” • At the conclusion of an election, we produce data that allows the verification of the interpretation and counting of every single ballot. • Election integrity depends on: • Physical security over ballots • Public observation of all steps in tallying and reporting process. • Ability to independently verify election results.

  22. Security, verification and certification (cont.) • TrueBallot is investigating federal certification for our scanning system. • TrueBallot says, “Don’t trust us; verify us.”

  23. A solution for Minneapolis IRV-STV Elections TrueBallot, Inc. 3 Bethesda Metro Center Suite 700 Bethesda MD 20814 Caleb Kleppner 203-376-4080 cell caleb@trueballot.com

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