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Massachusetts Regulations § 950 CMR 54.02 Testing

⤴ Up to Title 950 CMR 54.00: Voting And Counting Procedures For Electronic Voting Systems

Regulation Text

(1) City or Town Clerk Responsible for Testing . The vendor for each electronic voting system shall conduct a training session before each election which all new city or town clerks shall attend. The city or town clerk shall be fully responsible for all pre-election testing and for counting the ballots after the election. This responsibility shall not be delegated to the vendor.
(2) Ballot Testing . For punch-cards only, no later than two weeks after the delivery of ballots for state elections, the city or town clerk shall randomly select a sufficient number of punchcard ballots to be inserted into at least one marking unit per precinct to test adequately whether the punchcards fit into the marking units. The city or town clerk shall immediately notify the Director of Elections if the test demonstrates an improper fit.
(3) Vendor Responsibility . Any marking units stored by the vendor must be delivered by the vendor to the city or town clerk no later than one week after the delivery of the ballots for the state primary and general elections for the purpose of permitting the city or town clerk to complete the ballot testing requirement. Any additional cost incurred by the Secretary as a result of the failure of the vendor to deliver the marking units on time pursuant to 950 CMR 54.02 shall be the responsibility of the vendor.
(4) Computer Program Testing . Under the supervision of the city or town clerk a "test deck" shall be prepared of at least 50 punch cards or optical scanner ballots marked in such a way as to:
(a) adequately test the computer program;
(b) demonstrate rejection of overvoted punchcards or optical scanner ballots; and
(c) test any other contents of the program which may have a bearing upon the accuracy of the count.
The test deck must contain at least the elements provided in a model test deck prepared by the Secretary.
For primaries a "test deck" of cards/ballots must be prepared and tested for each political party. If more than one punch card or optical scanner ballot format is used in any election, all such formats shall be tested using the proper program and test deck.
Written notice of the time and place of the computer program test shall be given by the city or town clerk to the chairman of the city or town committee of each political party, and shall be posted in the city or town clerk's office, at least three days before the test.
(5) Time of Computer Program Testing . The computer program must be tested using the test deck no later than four days before each election. A copy of the computer print out of the test results, dated and signed by the city or town clerk, shall be filed at once with the Secretary for state elections. For punch-cards only, another test must be completed immediately before the program is used to count the ballots, and a final test immediately after the ballots are counted.
(6) Computer Program Delivered to Secretary . Each vendor or city or town official that prepares a computer program for a state election shall deliver an exact duplicate of the program to the Secretary, along with a certificate signed by the preparer, naming the election jurisdiction for which the program was prepared, and stating that the program is an exact duplicate of the program sent to that jurisdiction.
(7) Security of Computer Programs . The city or town clerk shall secure all computer programs, test decks, and computer results in a container sealed and stored in a secure location.
(8) Reporting Requirements . The city or town clerk shall report all computer problems, including tabulation errors and mechanical failures, to the Secretary.

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