Section 204.40  Criteria for Approval of Voting Systems

a)         A full review of each voting system shall be conducted to ensure that no voting system shall be approved unless it fulfills the following requirements as set forth in Section 24A-16 of the Election Code:

1)         It enables a voter to vote in absolute secrecy;

2)         It enables a voter to vote a ticket selected in part from the nominees of one party, and in part from the nominees of any or all parties, and in part from independent candidates and in part of candidates whose names are written in by the voter;

3)         It enables a voter to vote a written or printed ticket of his own selection for any person for any office for whom he may desire to vote;

4)         It will reject all votes for an office or upon a proposition when the voter has cast more votes for such office or upon such proposition than he is entitled to cast;

5)         It will accommodate all propositions to be submitted to the voters in the form provided by law or, where no  form is provided, then in brief form, not to exceed 75 words.

b)         Any review of a voting system shall consist of an evaluation of the characteristics of the system in order to determine what set of characteristics are needed to enable the system to fulfill the requirements set forth in subsection (a), such as:

1)         Physical characteristics, including design, engineering, materials and ability to communicate;

2)         Software performance, including, to the maximum extent possible, a review of application programs, audit trails of overvotes and undervotes, duplicate programs, object code, source code, support software, data integrity, media security, and multi-programming;

3)         Ballot and voting characteristics, such as the capacity of the ballot to contain multiple configurations;

4)         Ballot processing characteristics, including the preparation, accurate tabulation for both primary and general election ballots and transportation of ballots;

5)         Function and service characteristics, including the interaction and relationship, if any, of non-election related system functions with election related functions;

6)         Human performance standards, such as extent of training and degree of manual dexterity needed;

7)         Management standards, including setup, maintenance and security procedures.

(Source:  Amended at 29 Ill. Reg. 13734, effective August 25, 2005)