Election Systems & Software (ES&S):
Exporting Guide for AuditEngine

Ray Lutz, Citizens Oversight    V6  2022-06-15

support@citizensoversight.org

The AuditEngine system can perform ballot image audits. To perform these independent audits of election results, we need districts to export the ballot images and CVR files. The instructions below should help you to successfully export these files. There is a separate document for sending us the data, either by uploading or sending us USB Flash Drives.

ES&S is a leading supplier of voting machines and election software which can be audited by AuditEngine.

  1. Exporting ES&S Ballot Images

The following is from the ES&S documentation, on "ElectionWare", Chapter 3 "Produce Module", "Exporting the Ballot Table, Ballot Images and CVRs". These instructions may not match your system exactly.

We don't need the "Ballot Table".

ES&S uses the term "Cast Vote Records" for two different things. One is a .pdf file that is associated with the same name as the ballot image, except with a 'c' at the end of the ballot number, and provides the evaluation of the vote on that ballot by the election system as a pdf file. It is produced when producing the ballot images.

The other is a spreadsheet table with .xlsx extension, which lists all the ballots and the evaluation of the vote on those ballots by the election system. To distinguish, this document will call the .pdf files "cast vote record pdfs" and the spreadsheet files "CVR spreadsheet files."

Follow the instructions below to export the ballot images. The numbers relate to the paragraphs in the clippings.

2. Select "Include Non-Geographic Precinct Ballots"

3. Select "Include Cast Vote Records." (This includes the cast vote record pdf files)

4. Do not include a watermark in the images.

5. Select all districts, but only a few at a time so the zip files are not too large. Try to shoot for about 5 to 10 GB, and maybe 20,000 to 50,000 ballots per archive. Note: in some versions of the software, it may automatically split the records into files of a reasonable size.

6. Select all parties.

9. Choose file names like (County)BallotImages.zip, (County)BallotImages-1.zip, (County)BallotImages-2.zip, etc. where (County) is the name of the county. This may be automatic.

NOTE: The following refers to the "Cast Vote Record" -- This is regarding the cast vote record PDF files, and they are exported with the ballot images. This is not regarding the CVR Files, which are .xlsx spreadsheets.

  1. Exporting ES&S CVR Files

The CVRs are the cast-vote record tables that are saved by ES&S as Excel spreadsheets with .xlsx extension. These have one record per ballot sheet.

2. Select all contests


3. Select "Include Write-In Images".

4. In some versions of the software, the ElectionWare system automatically splits up the file into reasonable chunks, with only 100,000 lines (99,999 ballots). If not, please limit each file to this number for ease of handling.


5. Use a name like (County)-CVR.xlsx, (County)-CVR-1.xlsx, etc. where (County) is the name of the county. This may be automatic.

Please make sure the CVR file includes the "Ballot Style" field.

3. Exporting Ballot Style Masters

PDF ballot style masters are the files that are sent to the printer to create the official ballots. We need these PDF files which are in "searchable" format, and not just bit maps to aid in mapping the targets on the ballots without error. They must have the timing marks and style indications on them, just like the official ballots. Please place these in a single ZIP archive and upload using your upload link.

4. Exporting Digital Poll Tapes Reports

The ES&S system can reprint "Results Reports" which are stored in the ElectionWare election management system. Because these reports are existing records which can be easily created as normal functionality of the election management system, they are subject to public records requests, and we recommend that election officials create these and post them for the public to review.

  1. Open ERM - Election Reports Manager
  1. Select the Election
  1. On the top bar, click Tabulators
  1. Select DS200
  1. Select "Reprint DS200 Reports"
  2. Enter Qualify Code for that Election
  3. The Box below will appear

  1. You can only run the report one machine at a time.
  1. 1. Select one of the DS200 Serial numbers each time.
  2. 2. Check "Results Report"
  3. 3. Click OK
  1. The reports are now available in the Report File Utility.
  2. Process the report similar to how you process other reports (EL45A, EL30A)
  1. Note, we prefer .TXT or .LST reports.
  1. Repeat steps for each DS200 in the election. (It might be possible to run all the reports in step 4 for all machines, and then process the reports in steps 5 and 6.)

5. BMD Short Contest Names

AuditEngine uses OCR (optical character recognition) to process BMD ballots, and does not rely on barcodes. As a result, it needs information about the BMD strings used, especially the contest names, because these are limited in length, typically to 38 characters.

ES&S ElectionWare provides that you can add contests and it has a field called "Tape Name". They also sometimes call this the "Short Name". For example, the Title of the contest might be "Mayor of Possum Falls", but the Tape Name might just be "Mayor". There may be a report that can be generated of all the Tape Name strings for each "Title". This report can help us correct these prior to a live election without having samples of BMD ballots.