Iowa Administrative Code
Agency 721 - Secretary of State
Division II - Elections
Chapter 22 - Voting Systems and Electronic Poll Books
Rule 721-22.9 - Testing the Equipment
Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 6, September 18, 2024
The vendor shall provide to the examiners one, or more, if deemed necessary by the examiners, production models of the equipment submitted for certification. The equipment shall be prepared by the examiners with the aid of the vendor to be tested at two sample elections: a sample partisan primary election, and a sample general election.
(1) Test county for absentee voting. Voting equipment which is designed to be used for tabulation of absentee ballots shall be tested using a model county consisting of 155 precincts, with 180,000 registered voters. The county shall include one U.S. congressional district, five state senate districts, 11 state house of representatives districts, and 30 townships. Each township shall include both rural voters (who are eligible to vote for township officers) and city voters (who are not eligible to vote for township officers).
(2) Test county for absentee systems. Voting equipment which is designed to be used for tabulation of absentee ballots only shall be tested using a model county consisting of 15 5 precincts, with 180,000 registered voters. The county shall include one U.S. Congressional District, five state senate districts, 11 state house of representatives districts, and 30 townships. Each township shall include both rural voters (who are eligible to vote for township officers) and city voters (who are not eligible to vote for township officers).
(3) Test precinct for precinct count systems. The test precinct shall include both rural voters (who are eligible to vote for township officers) and city voters (who are not eligible to vote for township officers).
(4) All requirements for preparation and printing of test ballots shall be met in the preparation of ballots for the test elections including, but not limited to, rotation of candidates' names and the provision of space for write-in votes.
(5) Test ballots provided by vendor. The vendor shall provide the ballots to be used in the testing of the equipment. A total of at least 2000 ballots shall be printed for each of the two test elections. One thousand ballots for each test election shall be marked and manually tabulated by the vendor to use as a test of the ability to tabulate results accurately. The balance of the ballots shall be delivered to the examiners before the date set for the examination. The examiners shall mark and manually tabulate an additional set of at least 300 test ballots.
(6) Accessibility testing by other interested parties. Any party interested in the accessibility of voting equipment that is being considered for state certification may request to be included on notices of meetings of the board of examiners. Requests shall be sent to the examiners, in care of the Elections Division, Office of the Secretary of State, Lucas State Office Building, 321 E. 12th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50319. Any parties present at the meeting may complete accessibility testing on the equipment and submit a report on the accessibility of the voting system to the examiners within 30 days of the date of the examination and test. The report may be made in written or oral form. If an interested party would like to make an oral report, the examiners may hear the report either in person or by conference call organized by the elections division, whichever the examiners prefer.
