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Section CommentsGeneral CommentsGlossary Comments
 
Name :   David Dill
Organization :   Verified Voting Foundation
Post Date :   9/30/2005

Glossary Comments
Glossary Term :  Touch Screen Voting Machine
Definition :  
Comment :  Machine that utilizes a computer screen whereby a voter executes their choices by touching designated locations on the screen; the resulting
electrical signals are then tabulated within the machine.
Association: voting

Since the term “Voting Machine” is defined elsewhere in this glossary as equipment for the “direct recording and tabulation of votes”, would not a “touch screen voting machine” also
need to record a “cast vote record” in addition to tabulating “those choices”? Wouldn’t it make more sense either to define a touch screen voting machine as a specific instance of a
“voting machine”, i.e., one that uses touch screen sensors as one of the means by which voters indicate their choices or as a specific instance of a DRE, since all touch screen voting
machines currently in use are in fact DREs?  

Suggested change:
“A voting machine [or DRE] that utilizes a computer screen whereby a voter executes that voter’s choices by touching designated locations on the screen.”

Similarly, it is worth noting that at least some electronically-assisted ballot markers (EBMs) also employ touch screen sensors for similar purposes. Presumably, such devices would be properly referred to as “touch screen EBMs”.