Division of Elections Workshop Donald L. Palmer, Director 500 South - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Division of Elections Workshop Donald L. Palmer, Director 500 South Bronough Street, Room 316 Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0250 850/245.6200 elections.myflorida.com

Lessons Learned and Frequently Asked Questions Election Administration  Municipal issues  Solicitation  Qualifying candidates  Voting Systems  Modem  Bilingual and Trilingual Ballots  Election Night Reporting  Reports  Beta Tests  List Maintenance  Felons  FVRS – Upgrades and Maintenance  UOCAVA  Vendor submissions for Certification 2011 

Municipal Issues  DOE has no authority to interpret city charters or ordinances, so requests for interpretations to you should be referred to city attorneys.  Reminder: In the absence of a city charter or when the ordinance provision changes the effect of the Election Code for the municipality, the Code applies to municipal elections. See s. 101.3605(1), Florida Statutes

No Solicitation Zone  Lack of marking and enforcement within the 100-foot zone  SOEs need to ensure the 100-foot zone is clearly and properly marked and enforced  Precinct deputies should be alert to maintain good order at the polls

Qualifying Candidates  Candidates need to ensure compliance with Resign-to-Run: Section 99.102, Florida Statutes.  Candidates should be referred to FAQs on the DOE website, which addresses Resign-to-Run in detail  Candidates need to pay close attention to financial disclosure forms (CE Forms 1 and 6). Several lawsuits originated due to incorrect reporting

Lessons Learned - Voting Systems  Modem Transmission  Verify the phone line is an analog line or a filtered digital line – connecting modem to digital line could destroy the modem  Verify each tabulation device’s modem is working

Lessons Learned - Voting Systems  Bi- or Tri-lingual ballots  Consider one language ballot as requested by the voter  Number of sheets, time to scan each sheet, and potential ADA issues may be factors to consider on approach  Ballot-on-Demand  Allow absentee ballot request by language

Lessons Learned - Voting Systems  Election Night Reporting  Consider uploading early voting on Monday  Consider uploading absentee upload on Monday

Lessons Learned - Voting Systems  Reports  Use a universal format for precinct level report based on the voting system  Consider using the “Election Reporting Manual” on DOS webpage - TBD  Topics:  Before an Election: System acquisition  Pre-Election: L&A, election database  Election Night: export file  Post-Elections: certified elections database, precinct level results, over/under vote report, conduct of elections

Lessons Learned - Voting Systems  “Election Reporting Manual”  Items include:  Report description  Requirement – statute or rule  Submission date – due date  Reason for the requirement – why doing this?  Forms, where applicable  Unique instructions based on each voting system  Action necessary to satisfy the requirement

Lessons Learned – Voting Systems  County or county representing vendor- specific counties should consider being part of a Beta Test – before a certification event  Objective and subjective assessment of customer (county) desires and needs  BVSC will provide the certification plan to the counties before the conformance test  Request input for specific testing - objective assessment (not subjective)

Lessons Learned – List Maintenance  Certification Forms  Contact the Division with questions  Once agreed protocols (Rule 1S.2.041) or procedures in place, automated reports from VR vendors should streamline the process to provide this list maintenance data

Lessons Learned – FVRS List Maintenance  Transfer of Felons Files Between Counties  Assessment found files transferred without notice to BVRS  Notice to DOE/BVRS is vital to chain of custody – e-mail/fax  Restart clock once transferred to new county  Electronic process (Rule or protocols) should allow transfer and notification electronically

Lessons Learned – FVRS Maintenance and Upgrades  Significant degradation of FVRS since 2006 on number of processes – outdated records weighing down the system  Original limitation of the system design  No archiving mechanism, no limit on the growth of database  The lack of upgrades to Oracle and other system products due to lack of appropriate test environment  Performance of FVRS was sluggish, reaching redline on non-major elections and the response time to counties was becoming excessive  Action necessary

Lessons Learned – FVRS Maintenance and Upgrades  Maintenance and upgrades necessary to resolve the aforementioned issues  Ensure that system was available, timely responsive and functions appropriately daily and leading up to Election Day.  While maintenance schedule set earlier in year, the last maintenance weekend was set within 30 days of Election, no significant difference from previous main window on similar issues.

Lessons Learned – FVRS Maintenance and Upgrades  Goal of upgrades has been and continues to be:  Improve the performance of system and allow for continuity and functionality for SOEs during FVRS down time and minimal impact on counties during maintenance windows.  Provide increased functionality while maintenance is occurring on system including: voter look up and other functions such as voter history, elections, street segment information, sending of batch files, synchronization process continuation, and in the future, voter updates.

Lessons Learned: FVRS Maintenance and Upgrades  Transparency of maintenance windows – dates available  Conference calls with voter registration vendors on work and upgrades that may impact counties  No upgrades within 60-day window, prior to the 45 days window for overseas ballots – risk benefit analysis  1Q (2011): continued improvements culminating in planned maintenance window from 11-20 March (5 working days) for continued upgrades  Post March 2011 maintenance windows – continue to reduce the impact on counties or reduce non-availability of FVRS resources during down times or maintenance windows

Voting Systems 2011 – ES&S  1Q Testing and Certification DS200 firmware upgrade – ES&S application.  Source code review, mass ballot count, and primary/general election upload into ERM  The Lab for EAC currently testing almost complete  Summer 2011 – ES&S Unity 5.0 Electionware post EAC testing in June/July  Recommend Florida county(ies) and ES&S conduct BETA test prior to Florida certification event and before the end of federal testing.

Voting Systems: Issues ahead  UOCAVA  Electronic ballot access (and transmission) of voter marked ballots  FAX – plain text  Email – plain text  Secure Remote Electronic Access (Encrypted ballot)  County or Vendor will produce cryptography access and key management  Kiosk based system  PC based system

Voting Systems 2011- Dominion  Application for Dominion Democracy Suite – Image Cast precinct tabulator and Image Cast Central high speed tabulator, Gems II  DOE has portion of technical data package  Source Code review in February (TBD)  Expect into 2Q before testing complete  DOE will produce test plan to counties and allow counties to critique before testing and receive county input on any additional particulars to be tested