New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 9 - EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
Subtitle V - State Board of Elections
Part 6209 - Voting Systems Standards
Section 6209.2 - Polling place voting system requirements

Universal Citation: 9 NY Comp Codes Rules and Regs ยง 6209.2

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 52, December 24, 2024

(a) In order for a polling place voting system to be considered by the State Board for certification, it must comply with the mandates of New York State Election Law, and meet the Election Assistance Commission's 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, to the extent that they are consistent with State law and this Part. Such polling place voting systems shall meet the following requirements:

(1) Provide a full ballot display on a single surface, except that proposals may appear on the reverse side of any paper ballot, and that such ballot display is easily visible under typical lighting found in a poll site.

(2) For jurisdictions within the State of New York that have been identified by the U.S. Department of Justice, as requiring that ballots be provided in alternate languages, pursuant to section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 USC 1973aa-1a. Voting systems must be able to recognize and interpret alternate language ballots.

(3) Provide a device that produces and retains a voter-verifiable permanent paper record, pursuant to statute, which the voter can review and/or correct prior to the casting of their vote. In the case of a paper-based voting system, the ballot marked by the voter shall constitute the paper record referred to in subdivision (f) of this section. The paper record shall allow a manual audit and allow for preservation in accordance with the provisions of Election Law, section 3-222.

(4) Provide a device or means by which the record of the votes cast on the machine can be printed and visually reviewed after the polls are closed.

(5) Provide a battery power source in the event that the electric supply used to make the voting system equipment function, is disrupted. The battery power source shall operate the system and allow for the casting of votes for a period not less than two hours, to ensure that the system can shut down and preserve the integrity of votes cast prior to the power failure, and can resume functionality when power is provided or restored without significant or intrusive power-up procedures. Such batteries must be rechargeable and have minimum five-year life when used under normal conditions. In the event of a power failure, the equipment shall perform a normal shut-down not less than one hour before battery power is depleted, and shall notify the election inspector that the system will do so.

(6) The system shall contain software and hardware required to perform a diagnostic test of system status, and a means of simulating the random selection of candidates and casting of ballots in quantities sufficient to demonstrate that the system is fully operational and that all voting positions are operable.

(7) The system shall incorporate multiple memories, including resident vote tabulation, storage of results and ballot images in resident memory, serving as a redundant means of verifying or auditing election results and ballot images, and further, the system shall be required to alert the election day worker that memory capacity is about to be reached.

(8) In a DRE voting system, the system must prevent voters from overvoting and indicate to the voter specific contests or ballot issues for which no selection or an insufficient number of selections has been made. A ballot marking device must prevent voters from overvoting and indicate to the voter specific contests or ballot issues for which no selection or an insufficient number of selections has been made. A ballot counting scanner must indicate to the voter specific contests or ballot issues for which an overvote is detected.

(9) The voting system shall provide a method for write-in voting and shall report the number of votes cast in each contest in write-in voting positions.

(10) The voting system shall be capable of accumulating and reporting a count of the number of ballots tallied for an election district and votes cast for each candidate, and the total vote for or against each ballot proposal, and shall be capable of separating and tabulating those election district totals to produce a report of the total of ballots tallied by groups of election districts such as legislative districts or wards.

(b) In addition to the requirements of subdivision (a) of this section, fully-accessible voting equipment certified by the State Board shall meet the following requirements for usability by voters who are disabled:

(1) The voting system or equipment shall be equipped with a voting device with tactile discernible controls, pursuant to Election Law, section 7-202. S uch controls shall allow persons with limited reach and/or hand dexterity, the ability to cast their vote, and shall include, for example: raised buttons of different shapes and colors, large or raised numbers or letters, and light pressure switches.

(2) The voting system or equipment shall be equipped with an audio voting feature, pursuant to Election Law, section 7-202. T he audio feature shall be able to be used either independently or simultaneously with the on-screen display.

(3) The voting system or equipment shall be capable of being equipped with a pneumatic switch, pursuant to Election Law, section 7-202.

(c) Standards for noise level.

(1) Voting systems or equipment to be certified by the State Board shall be constructed in a manner so that noise levels of the system or equipment during operation will not interfere with the duties of the election inspectors or the voting public.

(2) The noise level of write-in components of the system or equipment shall be so minimal that it will be virtually impossible under normal conditions for someone at the table used by the inspectors of elections to determine that a write-in vote is being cast or has been cast.

(d) Standards for voter privacy.

(1) Voting systems or equipment shall be constructed so that no one within the polling site will be able to see how a voter is casting a vote.

(2) Curtains, screens, shields or other privacy devices shall be designed so as to allow any voter, either electronically or manually, to open, close or otherwise use the device with ease when entering and exiting the system or equipment.

(e) Environmental standards. The voting system shall be designed to protect against dust and moisture during storage and transportation. Testing shall be similar to the procedure of MIL-STD-810F, Method 510.4, for dust, and MIL-STD- 810F, Method 506.4 for moisture. These tests are intended to evaluate exposure to these elements when the system or equipment is in a non-operating configuration and the equipment or system's required protective cover is in place.

(f) Voter verified paper audit trails (VVPAT).

(1) The voting system shall print and display a paper record of the voter's ballot choices prior to the voter making the ballot choices final. In the case of a paper-based voting system, the ballot marked by the voter shall constitute the paper record referred to in this subdivision.
(i) The paper record shall constitute a complete record of ballot choices that can be used in audits of the accuracy of the voting systems electronic records, in audits of the election results, and in full recounts.

(ii) In the case of a DRE voting system, the paper record shall contain all information stored in the electronic record.

(iii) The voting system shall be capable of showing the information on both the display screen and the paper in a font size of 3.0mm, and should be capable of showing the information in at least two font ranges:
(a) 3.0-4.0 mm; and

(b) 6.3-9.0 mm, under control of the voter.

(iv) In the case of a DRE voting system, the paper and electronic display of the voter's selections shall be presented and positioned so as to allow the voter to easily read and compare the two.

(v) If the paper record cannot be displayed in its entirety, a means for moving the paper to show all paper record contents shall be provided.

(2) There shall be instructions for performing the verification process made available to the voter in a location on the voting system.

(3) The voting system shall display, print, and store a paper record in any of the alternative languages chosen for making ballot selections. Candidate names and other markings not related to the ballot selection on the paper record shall appear in English.

(4) The voting system shall allow the voter to approve or reject the paper record, in the case of DRE systems, marking the ballot as such in the presence of the voter.
(i) Any DRE voting system shall provide a means to reconcile the number of rejected paper records with the number of occurrences of rejected electronic selections, and procedures shall be in place to address any discrepancies.

(ii) Prior to reaching the maximum number of ballots allowed pursuant to statute, any DRE voting system shall display a warning message to the voter indicating the voter may reject only one more ballot, and that the third ballot shall become the ballot of record.

(5) In case of conditions that prevent voter review of the paper record, there shall be a means for the voter to notify an election official, and in the case of a DRE voting system, shall cause an error message to be displayed and shall prevent the recording of the electronic record.

(6) In the case of a DRE voting system, procedures by which an election official can be notified and prescribed actions can be taken to address discrepancies if a voter indicates that the electronic and paper records do not match, shall be documented.

(7) The voting system shall not record the electronic record as being approved by the voter until the paper record has been stored.

(8) Vendor documentation shall include procedures for returning a voting system to correct operation after a voter has used it incompletely or incorrectly; this procedure shall not cause discrepancies between the tallies of the electronic and paper records.

(9) The voter's privacy and anonymity shall be preserved during the process of recording, verifying, and auditing ballot choices.
(i) The privacy and anonymity of the voter's verification of ballot choices and the creation and storage of these choices, both electronically and on paper record, shall be maintained.

(ii) The privacy and anonymity of voters whose paper records contain any of the alternative languages chosen for making ballots selections shall be maintained.

(iii) Information for the purposes of auditing the electronic or paper records that may permit a voter to reveal his or her ballot choices shall be displayed so as not to be memorable to the voter.

(10) The voting system's ballot records shall be structured and contain information so as to support highly precise audits of their accuracy.
(i) All cryptographic software in the voting system shall have been approved by the U.S. Government's Crypto Module Validation Program (CMVP) as applicable.

(ii) This information shall contain, but not be limited to, the voting site/election district, type of election, ballot style, and whether the system is operating in a "test" mode.

(11) In the case of a DRE voting system, the electronic and paper records shall be linked by including a unique identifier within each record that can be used to identify each record uniquely and correspond the two accordingly.

(12) The voting system shall generate and store a digital signature for each electronic record.

(13) The electronic records shall be able to be exported for auditing or analysis on standards-based and/or information technology computing platforms.
(i) The exported electronic records shall be in an open, non-proprietary format.

(ii) The voting system shall export the records accompanied by a digital signature of the collection of records, which shall be calculated on the entire set of electronic records and their associated digital signatures.

(iii) The voting system vendor shall provide documentation as to the structure of the exported records and how they shall be read and processed by software.

(iv) The vendor shall provide a software program that will display the exported records and such software may include other capabilities, such as providing vote tallies and indications of undervotes.

(14) The voting system printers shall be physically secure from tampering.
(i) The voting system shall communicate with its printers over a standard, publicly documented printer port using a standard communication protocol.

(ii) The paper path between the printing, viewing and storage of the paper record shall be protected and sealed from access except by authorized election officials.

(iii) The printer shall not be permitted to communicate with any other system or machine other than the single voting system to which it is connected.

(iv) The printer shall only be able to function as a printer: it cannot store information or contain or provide any services that are not essential to system function, (e.g., provide copier or fax functions) or have network capability.

(v) Printer access to replace consumables such as ink or paper shall only be granted if it does not compromise the sealed printer paper path.

(vi) Prior to the opening of polls on election day, poll workers shall demonstrate that the ballot storage devices are empty. The storage devices shall then be sealed and no further access shall be provided to polling place workers.

(vii) Tamper-evident seals or physical security measures shall protect the connection between the printer and the voting machine, so that the connection cannot be broken or interfered with without leaving extensive and obvious evidence.

(15) The voting system's printers shall be highly reliable and easily maintained.
(i) The voting system should include a printer port to which a commercial off-the-shelf printer which complies with paragraph (14) of this subdivision, could be attached for the purposes of printing paper records and any additional records.

(ii) The voting system shall detect errors and malfunctions such as paper jams or low supplies of consumables such as paper and ink that may prevent paper records from being correctly displayed, printed and stored.

(iii) If an error or malfunction occurs, the voting equipment attached to the defective printer shall suspend voting operations and shall present a clear indication to the voter and election workers of the error or malfunction.

(iv) There shall be adequate supplies of consumable items such as paper and printer ink on hand to operate from opening to closing of polls.
(a) Printing devices should contain paper and ink of sufficient capacity so as not to require reloading or opening equipment covers or enclosures and circumvention of security features, or reloading shall be able to be accomplished with minimal disruption to voting and without circumvention of security features such as seals.

(b) Printer consumables shall be stored within the temperature and humidity ranges specified by the manufacturer and shall be stored in State Board-approved containers to protect them from sustaining any damage.

(v) The vendor shall make recommendations as to appropriate numbers of printers to be used in conjunction with the number of voting systems being utilized. A sufficient number of replacement printers shall be available.

(16) Vendor documentation shall include procedures for investigating and resolving malfunctions including but not limited to misreporting of votes, unreadable paper records, paper jams, low ink, mis-feeds and power failures.

(17) Vendor documentation shall include procedures for ensuring, in the case of malfunctions, that electronic and paper records are correctly recorded and stored.

(18) Protective coverings intended to be transparent on voting system devices shall be maintainable via a predefined cleaning process. If the coverings become damaged such that they obscure the paper record, they shall be replaced.

(19) The paper record shall be sturdy, clean, and of sufficient durability to be used for manual auditing and recounts conducted manually. The paper record shall be able to be stored and remain fully readable without degradation for 22 months within the temperature and humidity ranges specified by the manufacturer, but at a minimum temperature range of at least from -20° to 140° F, and at a humidity as high as 98 percent.

(g) Any submitted voting system's software shall not contain any code, procedures or other material which may disable, disarm or otherwise affect in any manner, the proper operation of the voting system, or which may damage the voting system, any hardware, or any computer system or other property of the State Board or county board, including but not limited to 'viruses', 'worms', 'time bombs', and 'drop dead' devices that may cause the voting system to cease functioning properly at a future time.

(h) Any submitted voting system shall provide methods through security seals or device locks to physically secure against attempts to interfere with correct system operations. Such physical security shall guard access to machine panels, doors, switches, slots, ports, peripheral devices, firmware, and software.

(i) The system shall provide a means by which the ballot definition code may be positively verified to ensure that it corresponds to the format of the ballot face and the election configuration.

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