Mercury News Editorial  15 August 2004

How Sequoia's voter-verified system works

Review printout

After completing their ballot on a touch screen, voters receive a prompt to print and review their choices. Their ions are then printed out on a scroll of paper attached to the machines and under glass.

Approve or revise ballot

Voters have the option of approving the ballot or revising it. If changes are made, the original ballot is marked canceled, and the new choices are then printed out. Voters can revise their ballot as many times as they want. Voters never get to touch the print-out.

cast ballot

Once a voter gives the final OK, the choices are converted into a machine-readable bar code, and the printed ballot is scrolled out of sight.

The printer uses a continuous roll of paper to prevent tampering. If the printer fails, the touch-screen system will shut down, ensuring an equal number of electronic and printed ballots.

In post-election testing or in the event of a recount, the electronic votes can be checked against the printed bar-code data to make sure there are no discrepancies.

There can also be testing to verify that the bar-code data and the printed names that voters see correspond.