1.
Security of the ranked-choice counting area. There will be a
guardrail enclosure set up to separate the ranked-choice counting area from the
public viewing area at the RCV counting facility. Only the ranked-choice
counting personnel designated in Section 5 of this rule will be allowed inside
the guardrail enclosure. All persons allowed inside the guard rail must sign in
each day, on a form provided by the Secretary of State. Candidates, media and
members of the general public must remain outside the guardrail area. Only
limited conversation will be permitted in the RCV counting facility. Cell
phones must be silenced during the count and may be used within the guardrail
area only by the ranked-choice counting personnel as needed to conduct the
process. Any person who causes a disruption of the RCV count may be removed
from the room, at the discretion of the RCV Supervisor.
2.
Inspection of Materials.
Prior to opening tamper-proof containers of ballots that were hand-counted on
election night, or sealed packages containing memory devices for ballots that
were machine tabulated on election night, the ranked-choice counting personnel
will inspect each container or package to document whether it was properly
sealed. As each container or package is opened and ballots or memory devices
are removed and processed, personnel will complete a tracking log.
3.
Processing of ballots and memory
devices. The following activities may be conducted simultaneously or
consecutively, depending on the number of ranked-choice counting personnel
available.
A.
Hand-counted
ballots. Tamper-proof containers of ballots that were hand-counted on
election night will be unsealed and scanned through a tabulating device in
order to obtain electronic results and cast vote records. RCV Assistants will
be assigned to unseal the tamper-proof containers of hand-counted ballots,
remove the ballots related to the ranked-choice contest(s) to be counted, and
prepare them for scanning. This will be done on a municipality-by-municipality
basis and an RCV assistant will generate a report of the scanned results. On a
periodic basis, the memory devices from the hand-count ballot scanning will be
uploaded into the election results reporting program.
B.
Machine-tabulated ballots.
Packages containing memory devices from municipalities whose ballots were
machine-tabulated on election night will be unsealed and the contents uploaded
into the election results reporting program. RCV Assistants will be assigned to
perform this task. This will be done on a municipality-by-municipality basis
and an RCV assistant will generate a report of the results that were
uploaded.
C.
Ballots that
cannot be scanned. Ballots that cannot be scanned, either by the
tabulating device used by the Secretary of State at the central location for
the RCV count or by the ballot tabulator used by the municipality, must be
manually entered into a spreadsheet to create an electronic cast vote record
for these ballots. The creation of the cast vote record spreadsheet and
subsequent proofreading of the spreadsheet will be done by a team of two
ranked-choice counting personnel. After the cast vote record for all ballots
that could not be scanned are entered and verified, the file will be uploaded
into the election results reporting software.
D.
Storage and return of processed
materials. After the process of scanning ballots and uploading memory
devices is completed for each municipality, the materials will be resealed in
the containers or delivery packages and secured by the Secretary of State until
after any recount period has passed. After the recount period has expired, or
after any requested recount has been completed, ballots will be returned to the
municipality of origin, while memory devices will be delivered to the Elections
Division for coding the next election.
E.
Hardware and software. The
Secretary of State will use hardware and software compatible with the current
tabulating system for performing the RCV count. Precinct tabulators or
high-speed tabulators used for scanning the hand-counted ballots will be
non-networked devices and will not be connected to the internet or employ any
wireless technology. The computers used for the election results reporting
program will be a self-contained, single-purpose, hard-wired network and will
not be connected to the internet or employ any wireless technology. The
Secretary of State will procure a software utility or algorithm that
incorporates the ranked-choice vote counting requirements as described in
section 4, subsection 2 of these rules. The RCV counting utility will utilize
the cast vote records and apply the ranked-choice vote counting requirements to
complete the rounds of the RCV count and determine a winner.
F.
Quality control reports. As
each municipality's results are uploaded into the election results reporting
program, the RCV Supervisor or an RCV Assistant will generate a report of the
total ballots cast to compare with the total ballots cast figure reported by
the municipality based on the election night count. This comparison will be
used to verify that all results from election night for each municipality have
been uploaded or all hand-count ballots have been scanned and results
uploaded.
4.
Ranked-choice vote reporting. After all the results from each
ranked-choice voting election are uploaded and verified in the election results
reporting program, the RCV Supervisor will initiate the RCV counting utility.
Reports will be generated to document the round-by-round results as well as the
final winner. However, if the results from all but a few small jurisdictions
have been uploaded and verified in the election results reporting program by
the end of the day on the Monday after the election, then the RCV Supervisor
may initiate the RCV counting utility to produce an unofficial result. The RCV
Supervisor must run the RCV counting utility again once the results from all
the jurisdictions have been uploaded and verified in the election results
reporting program, in order to produce an official result for the RCV election.
The Secretary of State will report the statewide ranked-choice result to the
Governor and will publish the results on the Department's public website along
with the complete digital cast vote record, as soon as possible after
completing the RCV count.
