Ballot Image Samples

Citizens Oversight (2019-08-19) Ray Lutz

This Page: https://copswiki.org/Common/M1917
More Info: Audit Engine, Election Audits, Election Integrity, Open Ballot Initiative

General

Ballots are desiged by election systems to be compatible with (usually) fairly simplistic optical scanning system (very few detectors. The database of election systems is here: https://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/

ES&S Ballot Specification

• BallotProductionGuide.pdf: Includes ES&S Ballot specification

Sample Election data files from Dane County, WI (2019 Spring Election)

• Data for all ballots in this election: https://countyofdane.sharefile.com/share/view/s2e1a08e987345268
• It appears that they have now standardized on PDF format rather than PBM
• This county uses ES&S DS200 or DS850 scanners.
  • See DS200 info here: https://www.essvote.com/products/ds200/
  • See DS850 info here: https://www.essvote.com/products/ds850/ And demo video: https://vimeo.com/59766481
• About 154K ballots in this county election. See XLS files. First one is limited to first 100K records.
• There are ~208 ballot styles in this set. Different style means different contests included on the ballot.
  • In general, there are between probably 100 to 900 styles in any given district.
  • The style is shown in the upper RH corner of the ballot (would vary due to ballot design by other vendor equipment.
• Here are some sample images from this set.
  • 203403i.pdf: Style 1
  • 203404i.pdf: Style 2
  • 203405i.pdf: Style 2
  • 203406i.pdf: Style 2
  • 203407i.pdf: Style 2
  • 203005i.pdf: Style 6
  • 203006i.pdf: Style 4
• Structure of the archive:
  • 2019 Spring Election Ballot Images.zip 2.032 GB
    • T Albion Wds 1-2
      • Nonpartisan
        • 203403c.pdf (34KB) -- PDF version of cast vote record -- PLEASE NOTE: These files are simply a pdf printout of the cast vote record for this ballot, which is already available as a .xlsx file. There is no need to OCR these pdf files because the data is already available.
        • 203403i.pdf (34KB) -- PDF ballot images, front and back
        • ... 836 items (418 pdf files, two images each)
    • T Berry Wds 1-2
      • Nonpartisan
        • 203005c.pdf (45kB)
        • 203005i.pdf (38KB)
        • ... 796 items (398 pdf files, two images each)
    • ... total of 49 total folders
  • 2019 Spring Election Ballot Images-1.zip 2.671 GB
  • 2019 Spring Election Ballot Images-2.zip 2.367 GB
  • 2019 Spring Election Ballot Images-3.zip 1.922 GB
  • 2019 Spring Election Ballot Images-4.zip 2.026 GB
  • 2019 Spring Election Cast Vote Records.xlsx 83 MB (100K records)
  • 2019 Spring Election Cast Vote Records.xlsx 42 MB ( 54K records)

Sample Election data files from Dane County, WI (2016 November Election)

• This is an earlier election and they use uncompressed PBM format, then ZIP compress. It performs pretty well.
• There is a separate image file for the front and rear, denoted by 'F' and 'R' characters in the file name.
• We can note that these ballots are not optimal for scanning because they use "gray scale" background in contest names causing the text to
• Structure of the archive:

03/03/2017  04:10 PM     2,199,450,541 2_Dunkirk to Fitchburg.zip
03/03/2017  04:54 PM     3,565,565,710 1_Albion to DeForest.zip
03/04/2017  12:46 AM     1,449,300,751 4_Madison City Wards 19 to 31.zip
03/04/2017  01:44 AM     2,549,097,540 3_Madison City Wards 1 to 21.zip
03/04/2017  09:00 AM     4,361,012,127 6_Maple Bluff to Mt Horeb (4).zip
03/04/2017  09:21 AM     5,900,596,696 7_Oregon to Sun Prairie.zip
03/04/2017  04:08 PM    13,081,950,177 5_Madison City Wards 40 - Madison Town.zip

• 2_Dunkirk to Fitchburg.zip
  • Dunkirk Town Wards 1-6.zip
    • Dunkirk Town Wards 1-6 (and 6 more folders like this one.)

01/01/2017  01:00 AM           612,181 N0000190000DS011339036442c2318c33a1b13R.pbm
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           611,749 N0000190000DS01133903644302d4996f32923F.pbm
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           610,237 N0000190000DS01133903644302d4996f32923R.pbm
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           609,157 N0000190000DS011339036443475754560c3f5F.pbm
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           610,237 N0000190000DS011339036443475754560c3f5R.pbm
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           612,181 N0000190000DS01133903644348e21d5a92999F.pbm
... snip ...
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           610,669 W0000190000DS01133903646c6f11a32e2f294F.pbm
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           611,749 W0000190000DS01133903646d01e3d0350a2a2F.pbm
01/01/2017  01:00 AM           610,669 W0000190000DS01133903647bc9989f1491128F.pbm
            2458 File(s)  1,501,524,010 bytes

• Here are sample image files in this set:
• N0000180000DS01133903640a2ee5ec21ac4f3F.pbm
  • N0000180000DS01133903640a2ee5ec21ac4f3F.pdf PDF version
• N0000180000DS01133903640a2ee5ec21ac4f3R.pbm
  • N0000180000DS01133903640a2ee5ec21ac4f3R.pdf PDF version
• N0000180000DS01133903640a2ee90a1f5a926F.pbm
• N0000180000DS01133903640a2ee90a1f5a926R.pbm
• N0000180000DS01133903640a28cfeb5101b26F.pbm
• N0000180000DS01133903640a28cfeb5101b26R.pbm

Ballots from Osceola, Florida (August 30, 2016 Primary)

• These are PDFs with two images each, including the front and back of each sheet.
• Grayscale contest name area is difficult to scan as characters bleed.
• The "D100" might be the style indicator, not sure. But these are all the Democratic primary ballots
• This appears to be the same election system as the one used in Dane County in 2019.
• Examples:
  • 1433i.pdf: 1433i.pdf
  • 1580i.pdf: 1580i.pdf
  • 1658i.pdf: 1658i.pdf
  • 1719i.pdf: 1719i.pdf
  • 1730i.pdf: 1730i.pdf
  • 1731i.pdf: 1731i.pdf
  • 1782i.pdf: 1782i.pdf
  • 1844i.pdf: 1844i.pdf
  • 1989i.pdf: 1989i.pdf
  • 1994i.pdf: 1994i.pdf

Los Angeles Ballot Layout Standard

This includes spec for ballot marking device output which uses 2d barcode which we must not trust

• VSAP-Ballots-RFI-Final-with-Attachments.pdf: Ballot specification for new LA voting machines

Other ballot layouts

There are a number of examples of ballot layouts at this link: https://civicdesign.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/

Voter Intent Standards

• CA -- https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/uniform-vote-counting-standards/
• MN -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/204C.22

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