ballot_layout_considerations

Ballot Layout Considerations

Introduction

NIST-1500-100 is called the “Election Results Common Data Format Specification”; from its Executive Summary:

This publication presents a common data format (CDF) for pre-election setup information and postelection results reporting. The format, known as the Election Results Common Data Format Specification Version 2.0, is comprehensive and detailed in its coverage of election results-related data and at the same time very flexible, able to accommodate election scenarios used throughout the United States.

TrustTheVote is capitalizing on NIST-1500-100’s broad scope by using it as the canonical format for its Election Definition Files (EDFs): the files that carry all the information used by ElectOS applications to create, distribute, and process ballots. The advantages of this strategy are several, including all those accrued by using an widely adopted open standard, but there are some disadvantages as well: in particular, the common data format is not tailored to any particular application.

Nowhere is this more evident than in its representation of Ballot Styles. Law Insider provides several definitions of Ballot Style, including the following:

Ballot style means a specific ballot layout or content for an election. The ballot style is the presentation of the unique combination of contests and candidates for which the voter is eligible to vote. It includes the order of contests and candidates, the list of ballot positions for each contest, and the binding of candidate names to ballot positions within the presentation. Multiple precincts may use a single ballot style. Multiple styles may appear in a single precinct where voters are split between two or more districts or other categories defining voter eligibility for particular contests and candidates.

NIST-1500-100 defines ballot styles as data structures “containing contest and candidate information in the order as [sic] they appear on the ballot at specific precincts or split precincts.” These data structures, or classes, are not finely tailored to the design of ballots: they do not specify typefaces, font sizes, spacing, pagination, or indeed anything about the layout of information on a printed page or on a screen other than order of presentation.

The remainder of this document, then, comprises hints, suggestions, and best practices for designers of ballots (or designers of software that generates ballots automatically from EDFs).

“Play it as it Lies”

It is the responsibility of the person creating the Ballot Style to define it correctly; the ballot designer should avoid making assumptions about unexpected ordering or missing data values.