New ballot processing procedures
In order to speed up the processing of ballots and to increase our efficiency, we’ve developed new plans for processing and counting ballots at the Elections Office. Some of the plans were implemented during 2011 and others will continue to be implemented during 2012.
The plans include:
- Doubling the space used to count ballots and increasing the number of ballot counting operators.
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- Counting mail ballots received on Election Day during that day rather than waiting until the next day. This will help us to complete the final count faster and it will enable us to update our election totals more consistently throughout the night.
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- Changing our ballot programming so that we can count ballots in “mixed mode” rather than counting them one precinct at a time. This change will allow us to count boxes of ballots without the added step of sorting them into individual precincts prior to counting. Instead, the computers sort the results into precinct categories as required by law.
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- The use of a signature verification machine that captures the signatures on mail ballot envelopes and allows us to more rapidly verify those signatures with less physical handling of the envelopes.
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