----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 7:01
PM
Subject: Re: Wyle Certification
Material
Global Chouteau wrote:
Any and all, attached is a list of
questions relating to the feature additions that takes the release 1.94w
to 1.96.1.......I would appreciate any answeres (even one) you can
provide...
> 1. Name “WITHDRAWN” (recommended
approach)
This can be demonstrated with any ballot by withdrawing a
candidate after the ballots have been printed but before downloading.
Sorry but I don't remember how to withdraw in GEMS off the top of my head.
> 2. Handling Precincts with no ballots. (and what and why this is
necessary)
It's for recounts in which some precincts have none of the
races that are being recounted.
> 3. Auto Absentee feature.( here I assume new ballots will have to be
printed)
Correct since they depend on separate ballot IDs for the
absentee ballots. See the Auto Absentee test databases at http://staff.gesn.com/resources/gems/databases/index.html
. From http://staff.gesn.com/lists/qatesting.w3archive/200103/msg00058.html,
"The Auto Abs Test 1 is with full pct IDs and Test 2 is with sequence IDs."
> 4. How to handle “Counter Group Header Group” cards…I could use an
explanation of the use of all the new Header Cards that can be used with
1.96.1
The Counter Group Header cards are designed for use with V2
ballots which are not supported by 1.96. We do not currently supply CG
header cards. The V1 AV-OS supports 2 count groups which are
predefined to be Polling (CG1) and Absentee (CG2). Therefore 1.96 will
recognize the CG header cards and will interpret the CG 2 header the same as
the Absentee Count card and the CG 1 header the same as the Polling Count
card.
> 5. How to handle “Counter Group Header, Poling” cards, or “No
Override Header Card” after using the Absentee Header Card..
You're mixing V1 and V2 header cards here. The No Override Header
is what I call the Count Group Separator card which is coded as CG0.
It would be used to clear a count group override in effect by using the CG
header cards as CG overrides which only has meaning with V2 ballots or, to a
limited extent, when Auto Absentee is enabled.
In order to implement the Auto Absentee feature, we had to implement a
way that would detect the CG from the ballot ID and therefore these cards
act as override cards when the AA feature is enabled. Unfortunately
using these headers with AA causes all ballots to be rejected if the CG is
actually changed so there is no good way to demonstrate this mode.
> 6. How to explain the use clearing old overrides before setting new
overrides.. Please explain “overrides” and how to use the ballots we now
have to demo this change.
To override means to override the ID printed
on the ballot. The only override that has meaning with V1 is the
precinct ID. Ballots counted after using a precinct header card are
counted to that precinct until a precinct separator card is used to clear
the override. For V2 we would also encode the CG in the ballot ID and
therefore the idea of a CG override would make sense.
> 7. Same questions when using the Accu-Feed unit.
We use a
different model for auto feed vs. manual feed when dealing with header
cards. For manual feed, you need to press the YES and NO buttons in
order to process a header card. Therefore there we have confirmation
that you actually meant to process that card. With auto feed we do not
require holding buttons so we use the idea of a deck to ensure that you
really mean to process the given header cards. In this case, an
override, pct or CG, must be cleared before another override can be used and
before the ender card can be used.
> 8. Where do I get the override cards..?
You should have precinct
header cards. There is no way to demonstrate CG override with V1 but I
could send you some CG header cards which would act the same as the Abs
Count and Polling Count header cards.
> 9. Explain “check that the card is valid for the current count
group”. I assume this is active only in pre-election mode.
The V1 AV-OS
has support for 2 count groups which we call polling and absentee. If
you encode the CG on the ballot as we do indirectly for the Auto Absentee
feature, then you could use an override card to override the CG in the
ballot ID. What 9 says is that we actually check that the CG is valid
for the card style and reject the ballot if not. Prior to this we
would accept it anyway because the V2 AV-OS has the counters even if they're
not valid. What this really means in practice is that since for V1 we
need different card style IDs for Polling and Absentee ballots when Auto
Absentee is enabled, we will reject the ballot if you try to override the CG
because no other CG is valid.
> 10. Need to demo the up to 48 character precinct name capability.
Then you'll need to prepare an election database with 48 character
precinct names, download a VC, and print a totals report.
> 11. Is there any way to demonstrate the “download protocol version
doesn’t need to be pre-selected in GEMS…?
No, not yet. This awaits
GEMS support which probably won't make sense until the pre-1.96 firmware has
been largely phased out.
What prevented this in the past was that the AV waited for the host to
identify the protocol first even though both ends were really supposed to
declare themselves at the same time. This meant that GEMS had to be
told what protocol to use before it could download. All we changed was
to have the AV identify itself first so that at some point in the future we
could use this to avoid the need to pre-identify the protocol in the GEMS AV
options.
Guy