RE: Gems - New Feature - Cards Cast Option for Reporting

["Ken Clark" <ken@gesn.com>]

The new feature of Cards Cast at the top of the Summary Report is very nice. However, the real intention is for that new feature to be the actual Voter Turnout or Ballots Cast or Total Number of Voters or whatever name you wish to give it, not the total number of Cards that go through the Accu-Vote.

  Perhaps we could but it wouldn't provide what you're looking for.  I know it seems simple in concept but it doesn't work since there is no way that we can link the cards that make up a ballot. 

 

Strictly speaking this is true, but voter turnout is one of those "close is good enough" statistics.  Sure we can't stop a voter from walking away with half their ballot, but we can at least provide a statistic that is close.  We just need to let administrators know that it is an approximation.  If they want an absolute stat, they can use cards cast and decide the turnout on their own.  Obviously it needs to be an option.

There are several ways of handling this technically.  One is the "minimum set" solution you mentioned.  Another is to use some kind of statistics race.  This solution seems to be used by other systems out there, and is what we're leaning towards at the moment.

I am not sure when this will be implemented, but it is highish on the list.  We have not had many multi-card GEMS accounts up 'til now, but Puerto Rico is important enough to take the feature seriously.  Stay tuned.

Ken