PenVote
announces TabTracker, The Early Warning Election System (EWES).
Tabtracker is a passive software application that monitors all election related activity on election night and provides you with immediate feedback and warnings if any preset conditions arise. TabTracker will immediately inform you of the following conditions (only a few are listed):
1.More votes than registered voters in a precinct.
2.More votes than the sum of possible voters for any race or issue.
3.Missing data cartridges.
4.Turnout either too low or too high based on how you set estimated turnout. (click to see sample report).
5.Issues and races that are in re-count territory.
6.Integrates data from our PenPoll product or any electronic pollbook systems on the market and ensure that sign-in totals match or are close to voting machine totals.
How does it work?
TabTracker is integrated into the PenVote tabulation product, but works with any tabulation system on the market—be it Diebold, Sequoia, Hart, ES &S or others. It takes the updated tabulation feeds from your system and then the data are analyzed against the preset conditions that you provide to the system. For example, if a recount is required if you have a margin of .5%, you simply set the recount margin to that, and TabTracker will analyze all incoming data and let you know if any issues or races are in recount territory.
You also import into TabTracker the number of registered voters in each precinct (or splits). If the vote count ever exceeds that number, a warning flag is raised. The warning can take various forms, such as:
1.Large Red Warning on the TabTracker screen, along with sound.
2.An email message, or text message to a cell phone can be sent.
3.Message to a pager.
A centralized DASHBOARD is used to monitor all activity and conditions that you are tracking. Any condition that needs attention is noted in yellow or red.
You can then “drill down” and monitor the status of an election activity and view/print reports (see below):
Why do I need TabTracker?
Tabtracker gives you peace
of mind. Instead of worrying and fretting all election
night, you can rest assured than anything out of the ordinary will
be flagged and you will be warned. This allows you to manage your
election night in a much more professional and organized way. Our
system automatically alerts you to STOP feeds to your website if a
critical error has been detected. If those errors get out to your
website, the whole world will see the erroneous data and you will
most assuredly end up in the paper, on electionline.org, etc.
Tabtracker will eliminate that fear. Tabtracker works silently in
the background and only alerts you if necessary.
TabTracker allows you to see issues and races that will
require a recount. As a result you can be more proactive in managing
any issues that arise with those races or issues (such as contacting
candidates, etc.).
TabTracker also integrates data with any electronic pollbook system
on the market, including our PenPoll product. Provided that your
electronic pollbook system can deliver sign in totals shortly after
the close of polls, that data can be loaded into TabTracker and we
can then match the sign in totals against the voting machine totals;
if they match you get a green light. If they are within a preset
margin (say, 10 voters,--to accommodate fleeing voters, etc.) the
condition is shown in yellow. If the discrepancy is greater than 10
voters, a red flag is shown and a message is sent. No system on the
market today matches electronic pollbook data against voting machine
data in real time.
Questions and Answers about TabTracker
Q1. My tabulation system is standalone. We don’t
let any network connections hook up to it. Will Tabtracker work with
my system and how do I get data to the Tabtracker system?
Answer_1: Tabtracker does not directly hook to your
tabulation system. For most systems, you feed your website by
creating a text file that you either put on a diskette (“Sneaker
Net”), CD, or via. a thumb drive. Our system is designed to sit in
between your tabulation system and any website that gets feeds from
your tabulation system (see chart below):
Q2. Where is the Tabtracker software installed? Do I need to buy hardware to make it work?
Answer_2: No. You can use your existing PCs and hardware. Since TabTacker also accepts data from your VR system, it can easily co-exist on your current workstations. However, since many jurisdictions create a “War Room” on election night, we can also configure a PC for you that would reside in that location and would only be used for the TabTacker application. The choice is yours.
Q3. Diebold (Premier) has been in the news recently because in Ohio several counties had issues where data cartridges were not loaded into the tabulation system. Would TabTacker have detected this problem?
Answer_3: YES!! We believe from what we have read, that TabTracker could have identified that there was an issue with the Premier tabulation results. If the turnout figures for a particular precinct were below what was predicted, it could have been flagged for a warning. In addition, if the tabulation system contains data regarding the data cartridges (i.e. a cartridge ID is assigned to each machine in the field) then we can track the return of the cartridges and provide warnings if cartridges are not read.
Q4. Does TabTracker have to be certified?
Answer_4: No. Since TabTracker does not connect to your tabulation system, nor does it write any data to your tabulation database, it is considered a 3rd party application and it does not require certification.
Q5. We don’t use TabTracker right now. What kinds of dangers do we face? How would Tabtracker save us from these problems?
Answer_5: Here are a couple of examples of what can happen if you don’t use Tabtracker:
Machine error gives Bush 3,893 extra votes in Ohio By John McCarthy, Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365.
Last November, in Indiana, DREs reported more than 144,000 votes cast in Boone County, which has fewer than 19,000 registered voters. –Wired Magazine, Issue 12.01, January 2004
In 2008 it is
complete absurd that your website or reports would leave your office
with such totals!! Clearly something is wrong and it needs
attention. TabTracker sends out the warning siren when these kinds
of things happen so you have time to react, research and re-submit
your totals.