Ballot Count Reconciliation for 3/5/24
There are two types of ballots, regular (100 per pack) and ExpressVote (25 per pack). Sometimes there can be a few more or less ballots per pack than the required number. This may throw off the final accounting on the lower part of the Reconciliation form, but is not considered to be a significant problem if it occurs. We just report it.
At the end of the day, complete the worksheet below. For the boxes containing regular ballots, the rows specify the ballot styles within each box. The ExpressVote ballots do not have a pre-assigned style; just consider them all to have the same "anonymous" style. It is important not to mix together different ballot styles and boxes when entering the counts.
- Delivered:
- This is the count on the ballot box label and will already be filled in by me before election day. It is the assumed count of the delivered ballots (for that style for that box).
- Loose:
- Record the count of loose ballots remaining (for that style for that box). Loose ballots are the ballots from an opened pack that were not ever distributed from the Ballot Table.
- Unopened:
- Record the count of ballots from the unopened packs (for that style for that box), assuming 100 ballots per pack for regular ballots and 25 per pack for ExpressVote ballots.
- Left:
- Record the sum of the "Loose" plus "Unopened" counts. This is the total count of all the undistributed ballots (for that style for that box).
- Used:
- Record the difference between the "Delivered" and "Left" counts. This is the assumed number of ballots that were distributed (for that style for that box).
Calculate the totals for the "Used" and "Left" columns. The total for the "Delivered" column will already be filled in. Verify that the "Used" total does equal the difference between the "Delivered" and "Left" totals. If they don't match, recheck the row and column calculations; at least one is wrong.
Record and total the number of ballots used for Emergency Bin, Provisional, Spoiled, and Challenged processing. These should be all the ballots not counted by the Tabulator. Subtract this total from the "Used" total. The result should match the "TOTAL BALLOTS" number printed on the Tabulator tape. Also, the number of the last ATV minus the number of ballots in the Emergency Bin should match the "TOTAL BALLOTS" number printed on the Tabulator tape.
For the 3/5/24 election there were 3 ballot style(s) for precinct 19-19. Nominally 6900 ballots were delivered.
Box 1: D0009: 600 126 474 26 100 Box 2: D0009: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 3: D0009: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 4: D0009: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 5: D0009: 600 600 0 0 600
Box 6: R0035: 600 0 600 0 0 Box 7: R0035: 600 467 133 67 400 Box 8: R0035: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 9: R0035: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 10: R0035: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 11: R0035: 600 600 0 0 600
Box 12: R0035: 100 0 100 0 0 L0037: 100 97 3 97 0 ====== ======= ======= Totals: 6900 - 5589 = 1311 vs L & M (ballots left) and K (ballots used) on the Reconciliation Form
(Totals was probably 6902) •--->- 24
¦ ======= (from Tabulator totals tape) ¦ Emergency Bin: 0 ¦ 1287 vs Tabulator "TOTAL BALLOTS": 1289 ¦ Provisional: 7 ¦ ^ ¦ ¦ Spoiled: 17 ¦ Number on last ATV: 1289 ¦ ¦ ¦ Challenged: 0 ¦ Emergency Bin: - 0 ¦ ==== ¦ ======= ¦ ¦ ¦ Not counted by Tabulator: 24 >--• Calculated Tabulator number: 1289 vs >-•Example of Completing a Ballot Count Reconciliation Worksheet
In this example, two ballot styles (A021 and B055) were used. Delivered (nominally, per the "Delivered column") were 3500 regular ballots in six boxes and 50 ExpressVote ballots in their special orange box.
For the ExpressVote box, one pack was opened. Few ballots were used from it, leaving 23 "Loose" and 25 "Unopened". So "Left" = "Loose" + "Unopened" = 23 + 25 = 48. "Used" = "Delivered" - "Left" = 50 - 48 = 2.
For the first regular box, all the packs were opened for both ballot styles and all those ballots were distributed, leaving no packs unopened (0 ballots under "Unopened") and 0 ballots loose for both ballot styles. No ballots were undistributed, i.e., Left" = "Loose" + "Unopened" = 0. All the "Delivered" ballots were distributed, so "Used" = "Delivered" - "Left" = "Delivered" for both ballot styles.
For the second box, for ballot style A021, only one of the three packs was opened and most of the ballots from that pack were distributed, leaving only 5 loose A021 ballots and 200 still in the two unopened A021 packs. "Left" = "Loose" + "Unopened" = 5 + 200 = 205. For this ballot style, "Used" = "Delivered" - "Left" = 300 - 205 = 95.
For the second box, for ballot style B055, all three packs were opened. All ballots from the first two packs were distributed as well as a few from the last pack, leaving 92 loose B055 ballots and none in unopened packs. "Left" = "Loose" + "Unopened" = 92 + 0 = 92. For this ballot style, "Used" = "Delivered" - "Left" = 300 - 92 = 208.
For boxes 3, 4, 5, and 6, none of the packs were opened, leaving all 600 ballots undistributed and 0 used.
For the ballots NOT counted by the Tabulator, assume 0 in the Emergency Bin, 13 Provisional, 10 Spoiled, and 0 Challenged -- a total of 23 ballots. Also, assume the TOTAL BALLOTS printed on the Tabulator tape is 782; this is the number of ballots actually read by the Tabulator. Also assume in this example that 782 is the number of the last ATV. See Overview of Ballot Count Reconciliation for more on the following two tests and a diagram of how this all ties together.
TEST 1: When the "Not counted by Tabulator" number is subtracted from the number of "Used" (distributed) ballots, the result should match the TOTAL BALLOTS number printed on the Tabulator tape.
TEST 2: The number of the last ATV minus the number of ballots in the Emergency Bin should match the TOTAL BALLOTS number printed on the Tabulator tape. In fact this is the more important check.
Box 1: A021: 200 0 200 0 0 B055: 300 0 300 0 0
Box 2: A021: 300 205 95 5 200 B055: 300 92 208 92 0
Box 3: A021: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 4: A021: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 5: B055: 600 600 0 0 600 Box 6: B055: 600 600 0 0 600 ====== ======= ======= Totals: 3550 - 2745 = 805
•-> - 23
¦ ¦ ======= (from Tabulator totals tape) ¦ Emergency Bin: 0 ¦ 782 vs Tabulator "TOTAL BALLOTS": 782 ¦ Provisional: 13 ¦ ^ ¦ ¦ Spoiled: 10 ¦ Number on last ATV: 782 ¦ ¦ ¦ Challenged: 0 ¦ Emergency Bin: - 0 ¦ === ¦ ======= ¦ ¦ ¦ Not counted by Tabulator: 23 >--• Calculated Tabulator number: 782 vs >-•Last Updated:
