Sequoia Optech III-P Eagle

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The Sequoia Voting Systems Optech III-P Eagle Optical Scan System from Election Systems & Software is an optical scan voting system.

Main article: Voting machines

Design and operation

Voter verification

The Sequoia Voting Systems Optech III-P Eagle Optical Scan's federally-Qualified Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail Capability: Uses paper ballots

Brief description

As an optical ballot tabulator, the Optech III-P Eagle functions at the precinct level. The Optech III-Eagle consists of an electronic ballot counting device which reads completed ballots by scanning for the voters’ marks indicating their voting preferences. The Optech III-Eagle then tabulates the results. When the polls close, the results are both printed on a paper copy and stored to an internal memory card.

The Optech III-Eagle runs off both internal and external power to reduce the risk of malfunctions, and it can store voter data on an internal memory card, transmit data via phone lines or satellite, and it can print out paper copies of voter results.

Detailed Voting Process

The Optech III-Eagle functions much like a traditional paper ballot system. Upon entering the voting precinct, the voter will receive a paper ballot; the voter shades in the paper ballot with any standard pen or pencil and inserts the ballot into the Optech III-Eagle, which then ensures that the ballot has been properly marked and that no over or under voting has occurred. As votes are entered, the Optech III-Eagle stores the vote tallies on its internal memory card., and when the polls close, the Optech III-Eagle prints out a paper copy of the election results for polling officials.

Reported problems

Pre-2008 election

Past Problems: There have been some reported problems with the Optech III-Eagle, although not as many as with other systems. This may be because of the relative newness of the system. One known issue is that there can be compatibility problems between the Optech III-Eagle and other Sequoia Voting Systems, such problems having led to tabulation delays and errors in a multiple cities in the Wisconsin primary elections in 2006.

NASED Qualification Status

The National Association of State Election Directors NASED Qualified: Yes

Articles and resources

References

Note: This article was originally copied from the Electronic Frontier Foundation's fact sheet, "Electronic Voting Machine Information Sheet: ES&S Model 100 Optical Scan System,", Version 1.1 of October 29, 2006. See more EFF articles on voting machines at http://w2.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/protection.php