721—22.1 (52) Definitions for certification of voting equipment.
“Accredited independent test authority” means a person or agency that was formally recognized by the National Association of State Election Directors as competent to design and perform qualification tests for voting system hardware and software. “Accredited independent test authority” also includes voting system test laboratories accredited by the Election Assistance Commission to test voting systems for compliance with federal voting system standards and guidelines, as required by the Help America Vote Act, Section 231.
“Audio ballot” means the presentation of the contents of a ballot on a direct recording electronic voting machine in a recorded format, played to the voter over headphones. An audio ballot is used to make voting accessible to persons with visual disabilities.
“Automatic tabulating equipment” means apparatus, including but not limited to electronic data processing machines, that are utilized to ascertain the manner in which optical scan ballots have been marked by voters or by electronic ballot marking devices, and count the votes marked on the ballots.
“Ballot” means the official document that includes all of the offices or public measures to be voted upon at a single election, whether they appear on one or more paper ballots. The term includes paper ballots designed to be read by automatic tabulating equipment. In appropriate contexts, “ballot” also includes conventional paper ballots.
“Ballot marking device” means a pen, pencil, or similar writing tool, or an electronic device, all designed for use in marking an optical scan ballot, and so designed or fabricated that the mark it leaves may be detected and the vote so cast counted by automatic tabulating equipment.
“Certification” means formal approval of voting machines or optical scan voting systems for use in Iowa pursuant to Iowa Code sections 52.5 and 52.26 and 2007 Iowa Acts, Senate File 369, section 7.
“Early voting” means the process of receiving ballots from voters before election day without using absentee voting procedures. Iowa law does not authorize this process.
“Electronic ballot marking device” means a component of an optical scan voting system designed to assist voters with disabilities by displaying audio and visual ballot information to the voter, providing accessible methods for the voter to make selections, and then printing the voter’s choices on an optical scan ballot.
“Electronic transmission” means using hardware and software components to send data over distances both within and external to the polling place and to receive an accurate copy of the transmission.
“Examiners” means the board of examiners for voting systems described in Iowa Code section 52.4 as amended by 2007 Iowa Acts, Senate File 369, section 28.
“Optical scan ballot” means a printed ballot designed to be marked by a voter with a ballot marking device and to be counted by use of automatic tabulating equipment.
“Optical scan voting system” means a system employing paper ballots under which votes are cast by voters by marking paper ballots with a ballot marking device and thereafter counted by use of automatic tabulating equipment.
“Program” means the written record of the set of instructions defining the operations to be performed by a computer in examining, counting, tabulating, and printing votes.
“Qualification test” means the examination and testing of a voting system by an independent test authority using the voting system standards required by Iowa Code section 52.5 and rule 721—22.2(52) to determine whether the system complies with those standards.
“Vendor” means a person or representative of a person owning or being interested in a voting machine or optical scan voting system seeking certification of the equipment for use in elections in Iowa.
“Voting booth” means an enclosure designed to be used by a voter while marking a conventional paper ballot, optical scan ballot or ballot card.
“Voting equipment” means voting machines and optical scan voting systems which are required by Iowa Code sections 52.5 and 52.26 and 2007 Iowa Acts, Senate File 369, section 7, to be approved for use by the examiners.
“Voting machine” means a direct recording electronic device meeting the requirements of 2007 Iowa Acts, Senate File 369, section 7, subsections 1 and 2, and designated for use in casting, registering, recording, and counting votes at an election.
“Voting system” means the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical or electronic equipment (including the software, firmware and documentation required to program, control and support the equipment that is used to define ballots, to cast and count votes, to report or display election results and to maintain and produce any audit trail information). “Voting system” also includes the practices and associated documentation used to identify system components and versions of such components, to test the system during its development and maintenance, to maintain records of system errors and defects, to determine specific system changes to be made to a system after the initial qualification of the system and to make available any materials to the voter such as notices, instructions, forms or paper ballots. (See Section 301(b) of HAVA.)