Chapter 1: DS850 Overview
3
EVS5200_DOC_SOP_DS850
ES&S Elections
Jurisdictional Nomenclature
Terminology for the lowest-level common geopolitical civil division differs by state and
country. In this manual and other ES&S documentation, the entity is referred to as a
precinct.
As a company with accounts across the country and around the world, ES&S recognizes
that certain jurisdictions use terms other than precinct. Some examples of the terms
used by other jurisdictions are Election District (or ED), Borough, Province, Division, and
District. These terms and others may be substituted for precinct depending upon the
particular jurisdiction. However, for consistency, ES&S uses the term precinct
throughout its documentation.
Election Definition
Using ElectionWare, election coders program a custom election definition onto a USB
flash drive for each DS850 used in your jurisdiction. An election definition contains all of
the candidates, contests, and ballot variations that the scanner will process at the
polling place. It also contains the user-defined codes that must be entered on the
scanner to perform various functions. The election definition provides default values for
configuration settings, some of which can be modified on the scanner after the election
definition is loaded.
Election Security
All ports for connecting USB and Ethernet devices are located behind lockable doors.
Each of these locations contains a provision for a wire seal for an additional level of
security. See
for information on the placement of the locks and seals.
Access to various system screens require entry of a code to prevent unauthorized access
to certain system functions.
The DS850 records errors and major events and tags these incidents with the date and
time the incident occurred based on the DS850’s real-time clock settings. Audit log
information can be exported to a USB flash drive inserted into a USB port on the DS850.
The Zero Report, which is printed before polls are open on Election Day, is used to
indicate no tampering has been done to the vote totals.
Note:
Screen text that ends with an ellipsis (…) indicates that more characters were entered
for the text in ElectionWare than the DS850 can display
