DRS e-Counting Solution – Benefits

Disadvantages of other e-Counting solution providers

Most other e-Counting providers use standard imaging technology to scan and count ballot papers.  This normally involves a two-stage process:

Firstly the ballot paper is scanned to take a digital image.  At this stage nothing is known about the ballot paper or even if the document scanned is a valid ballot paper. At this stage the scanned image is usually only the voting area and not a complete image of the ballot paper.  This means it will be unable to detect additional marks made by the voter such as a signature.

Secondly, software is used to process the ballot paper image.  Only then is it possible to detect whether an image is needed for later adjudication or whether the vote can be counted.

This two-stage process can be both time-consuming and error-prone, as it is often necessary to refer back to the physical paper at the time of scanning.  The process also requires every ballot paper to be ‘imaged’ and for those images to be passed across a local area network, even though only a few will be needed.  It is memory-intensive and image traffic can be slow, reducing the system’s ability to run at optimum speeds. 

Advantages of the DRS e-Counting Solution

The DRS scanning process works in a very different way by processing the ballot papers in real-time.  While the ballot paper is actually being scanned, the scanner checks the paper and reads the secure unique form identifiers to confirm the ballot paper’s authenticity.  If a ballot paper fails these initial checks, it would be rejected, immediately identifying to the scanner operator that this ballot paper requires manual adjudication. 

If the ballot paper meets the authenticity checks, then the scanner will attempt to read the vote.  Immediately after scanning, the system knows if the ballot paper has been marked correctly and therefore whether the votes can be recorded automatically, or whether it needs to be flagged for adjudication.  Certain voting criteria can be automated - for example: if the voter has under-voted but the ballot paper has passed all other security checks, then this vote could be counted automatically.  Users can define where automation is to be applied and which criteria of ballot papers need to be flagged for further scrutiny. 

This real-time mechanism ensures there is less administrative work in finding a single ballot paper in hundreds or thousands of batches if it needs to be referred to. Streamlining process, improving accuracy, increasing efficiency, improving security and transparency are some of the benefits DRS brings to the e-Counting process.