Section 204.60  Preliminary Determination and Review of the Proposed Voting Systems

a)         Upon the Board's receipt of a completed application requesting approval of a voting system and the appropriate application fee, a preliminary determination shall be made as to whether the proposed voting system has the capability of fulfilling the criteria prescribed in Section 204.40.

b)         If the preliminary determination indicates that the proposed voting system appears to fulfill the criteria prescribed in Section 204.40, then the staff of the Board will conduct a preliminary review of the proposed voting system.

c)         Insofar as practical, the preliminary review of the proposed voting system will consist of the creation of a pre-audited ballot counting test by the Board's staff that will be delivered to the applicant.  The applicant shall tabulate the ballots contained within the pre-audited ballot counting test and generate, at a minimum, individual precinct result total reports and cumulative result total reports that, along with the pre-audited ballot counting test, will be delivered to the Board.  The Board's staff shall review the reports submitted by the applicant and submit a preliminary review findings and conclusions report to the Board and the applicant.

d)         If the preliminary review report indicates that the proposed voting system appears to demonstrate the capability to fulfill the criteria prescribed in Section 204.40, the staff of the Board shall continue with the full review process to demonstrate satisfactory performance of the proposed voting system as prescribed in Section 204.70.  A system fails preliminary review when it fails to fulfill the criteria of Section 204.40 by the conclusion of the third ballot counting test.

e)         If the preliminary review report indicates that the proposed system fails to demonstrate the capability to fulfill the criteria prescribed in Section 204.40, the staff of the Board shall cease any further review of the system.  Any application for system approval offered by an applicant who has previously failed during the preliminary review or full review process shall not be considered by staff for a period of one year from the date of determination by the Board.

(Source:  Amended at 33 Ill. Reg. 13937, effective September 16, 2009)