Machine Marked Ballots

After a voter is done making vote selections with VxMark, the machine will print a ballot representing the selections. The voter reviews the ballot, after which it is deposited into the attached ballot box. Eventually, those ballots are scanned at VxScan or VxCentralScan.

VxMark Ballot

Ballot Layout

Parts of a VxMark Ballot

The ballot displays information about the election, metadata about the ballot, and the voter's selections. The selections are both displayed and encoded in the QR code.

Ballot Component
Details

Election Seal

The seal included in the election definition

Ballot Title

The title is either "Unofficial Test Ballot" or "Official Ballot" depending whether VxMark is in test mode

Election Metadata

Includes the election title, election date, state, and county

Ballot Metadata

Includes the precinct name, the ballot style identifier, and the ballot identifier. The ballot identifier is a random UUID assigned by VxMark.

QR Code

Contest Title

The contest title

Selection

The name of the candidate or label of the yes-no contest option that the voter selected

Party

The short party name associated with the selected candidate

The blank space at the top of the ballot is included so that all of the ballot content is visible when VxMark presents the ballot for the voter to review (since the top part of the ballot is held in the machine).

Multi-Lingual Ballots

If VxMark is being used in a language other than English, the resulting ballot will be multi-lingual and feature the other language. All pieces of text that appear on the VxMark ballot may have translations specified in the election definition's ballot strings, which will then be used when printing the ballot.

English/Chinese VxMark Ballot

QR Code

The QR codes on VxMark ballots are different than the QR codes on hand marked ballots in that they actually contain voter selections in addition to the ballot metadata. For full specifications on how metadata and selections are encoded, refer to the Ballot QR Code Data Format.

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