New Federal Law in the 2006 Election Season

Assistive Voting Technology (AVT) is a new voting technology which will be implemented throughout the United States as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). This technology will allow voters with disabilities (anyone that may have difficulty voting) to vote independently and privately.

Minnesota

In Minnesota, the certified Assistive Voting Technology is a ballot marking device called the ES & S AutoMARK which will mark the voter’s paper ballot. The State of Minnesota requires that all elections have a paper ballot as a “paper trail” for election recounts.

Voters in Minneapolis/Hennepin County

All ballots voted in Hennepin County during the 2006 election, whether the voter uses a pen or the new ballot marking device, will be inserted into the ES & S M-100 precinct ballot counter that has been used in Hennepin County since 2000.

What to Expect at the Polls

All voters receive the same paper ballot whether they will vote using an ink pen or ballot marking device. The ballot marking device allows voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Voters may use the ballot marking device to record their vote using the touch screen, touch pad or sip/puff tube.

The ballot marking device gives the voters the opportunity to review the votes selected, marks the approved votes on the paper ballot and then returns the marked ballot to the voter. Voters then insert their voted ballot into the ES & S M-100 precinct ballot counter used by all voters in the precinct. When the polls are closed, all votes are then tallied by the ballot counter to produce precinct election results.

All voters, whether they use a pen or the new ballot marking device, will mark their votes on a paper ballot which produces the paper trail necessary to allow for a precise audit of the election.