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Illinois Statutes § 5/24C-11 Functional requirements

⤴ Up to Article 24C: Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems

Statute Text

A Direct Recording Electronic Voting System shall, in addition to satisfying the other requirements of this Article, fulfill the following functional requirements:
(a) Provide a voter in a primary election with the means of casting a ballot containing votes for any and all candidates of the party or parties of his or her choice, and for any and all non-partisan candidates and public questions and preclude the voter from voting for any candidate of any other political party except when legally permitted. In a general election, the system shall provide the voter with means of selecting the appropriate number of candidates for any office, and of voting on any public question on the ballot to which he or she is entitled to vote.
(b) If a voter is not entitled to vote for particular candidates or public questions appearing on the ballot, the system shall prevent the selection of the prohibited votes.
(c) Once the proper ballot has been selected, the system devices shall provide a means of enabling the recording of votes and the casting of said ballot.
(d) System voting devices shall provide voting choices that are clear to the voter and labels indicating the names of every candidate and the text of every public question on the voter's ballot. Each label shall identify the selection button or switch, or the active area of the ballot associated with it. The system shall be able to incorporate minimal, easy-to-follow on-screen instruction for the voter on how to cast a ballot.
(e) Voting devices shall (i) enable the voter to vote for any and all candidates and public questions appearing on the ballot for which the voter is lawfully entitled to vote, in any legal number and combination; (ii) detect and reject all votes for an office or upon a public question when the voter has cast more votes for the office or upon the public question than the voter is entitled to cast; (iii) notify the voter if the voter's choices as recorded on the ballot for an office or public question are fewer than or exceed the number that the voter is entitled to vote for on that office or public question and the effect of casting more or fewer votes than legally permitted; (iv) notify the voter if the voter has failed to completely cast a vote for an office or public question appearing on the ballot; and (v) permit the voter, in a private and independent manner, to verify the votes selected by the voter, to change the ballot or to correct any error on the ballot before the ballot is completely cast and counted. A means shall be provided to indicate each selection after it has been made or canceled.
(f) System voting devices shall provide a means for the voter to signify that the selection of candidates and public questions has been completed. Upon activation, the system shall record an image of the completed ballot, increment the proper ballot position registers, and shall signify to the voter that the ballot has been cast. The system shall then prevent any further attempt to vote until it has been reset or re-enabled by a judge of election.
(g) Each system voting device shall be equipped with a public counter that can be set to zero prior to the opening of the polling place, and that records the number of ballots cast at a particular election. The counter shall be incremented only by the casting of a ballot. The counter shall be designed to prevent disabling or resetting by other than authorized persons after the polls close. The counter shall be visible to all judges of election so long as the device is installed at the polling place.
(h) Each system voting device shall be equipped with a protective counter that records all of the testing and election ballots cast since the unit was built. This counter shall be designed so that its reading cannot be changed by any cause other than the casting of a ballot. The protective counter shall be incapable of ever being reset and it shall be visible at all times when the device is configured for testing, maintenance, or election use.
(i) All system devices shall provide a means of preventing further voting once the polling place has closed and after all eligible voters have voted. Such means of control shall incorporate a visible indication of system status. Each device shall prevent any unauthorized use, prevent tampering with ballot labels and preclude its re-opening once the poll closing has been completed for that election.
(j) The system shall produce a printed summary report of the votes cast upon each voting device. Until the proper sequence of events associated with closing the polling place has been completed, the system shall not allow the printing of a report or the extraction of data. The printed report shall also contain all system audit information to be required by the election authority. Data shall not be altered or otherwise destroyed by report generation and the system shall ensure the integrity and security of data for a period of at least 6 months after the polls close.
(k) If more than one voting device is used in a polling place, the system shall provide a means to manually or electronically consolidate the data from all such units into a single report even if different voting systems are used to record ballots. The system shall also be capable of merging the vote tabulation results produced by other vote tabulation systems, if necessary.
(l) System functions shall be implemented such that unauthorized access to them is prevented and the execution of authorized functions in an improper sequence is precluded. System functions shall be executable only in the intended manner and order, and only under the intended conditions. If the preconditions to a system function have not been met, the function shall be precluded from executing by the system's control logic.
(m) All system voting devices shall incorporate at least 3 memories in the machine itself and in its programmable memory devices.
(n) The system shall include capabilities of recording and reporting the date and time of normal and abnormal events and of maintaining a permanent record of audit information that cannot be turned off. Provisions shall be made to detect and record significant events (e.g., casting a ballot, error conditions that cannot be disposed of by the system itself, time-dependent or programmed events that occur without the intervention of the voter or a judge of election).
(o) The system and each system voting device must be capable of creating, printing and maintaining a permanent paper record and an electronic image of each ballot that is cast such that records of individual ballots are maintained by a subsystem independent and distinct from the main vote detection, interpretation, processing and reporting path. The electronic images of each ballot must protect the integrity of the data and the anonymity of each voter, for example, by means of storage location scrambling. The ballot image records may be either machine-readable or manually transcribed, or both, at the discretion of the election authority.
(p) The system shall include built-in test, measurement and diagnostic software and hardware for detecting and reporting the system's status and degree of operability.
(q) The system shall contain provisions for maintaining the integrity of memory voting and audit data during an election and for a period of at least 6 months thereafter and shall provide the means for creating an audit trail.
(r) The system shall be fully accessible so as to permit blind or visually impaired voters as well as voters with physical disabilities [physically disabled voters] to exercise their right to vote in private and without assistance.
(s) The system shall provide alternative language accessibility if required pursuant to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
(t) Each voting device shall enable a voter to vote for a person whose name does not appear on the ballot.
(u) The system shall record and count accurately each vote properly cast for or against any candidate and for or against any public question, including the names of all candidates whose names are written in by the voters.
(v) The system shall allow for accepting provisional ballots and for separating such provisional ballots from precinct totals until authorized by the election authority.
(w) The system shall provide an effective audit trail as defined in Section 24C-2 in this Code.
(x) The system shall be suitably designed for the purpose used, be durably constructed, and be designed for safety, accuracy and efficiency.
(y) The system shall comply with all provisions of federal, State and local election laws and regulations and any future modifications to those laws and regulations.

History

Amended by P.A. 099-0143 , § 45 , eff. 7/27/2015 .

Amended by P.A. 098-1171 , § 5 , eff. 6/1/2015 .

Amended by P.A. 095-0699 , § 5 , eff. 11/9/2007 .

Added by P.A. 093-0574 , § 5 , eff. 8/21/2003 .

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