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In the examples below, the first image on the left is the goal for perfect
registration. The second image shows some misalignment, but since the cross hairs
intersect within the box, the ballot is still good. The last example is bad because
the cross hairs intersect outside of the box.
Bad Registration
Good Registration
Perfect Registration
•
Adjusting the Scaling Factor--
The first item that should be set is the Scaling
Factor. The distance between the cross hairs should be 7.5” from horizontally,
and 13.4” vertically. With the DBS, you don’t need a ruler; you just need to
compare the cross hairs to the registration boxes. The example below shows
four registration boxes to represent each corner on the front of the ballot.
With the top left cross hairs centered in the box, the top
right cross hair is a little left of center. In this case the
Horizontal Scaling should be increased. As a general rule,
½ of the registration box is .03” or .4% of the width. Since
this example is off about .015 or ¼ of the box, the
horizontal scaling factor should be set to about 100.20%.
Adjust this setting until the distance between the two cross
hairs is about the same as the distance between the
registration boxes. At this point they do not need to be
centered in the registraion boxes, just the same distance
apart. We will center them later with the Margins/Offset
setting.
Do the same for the Vertical Scaling. Since the length of
the ballot is nearly twice the width, to move the lower cross
hairs the same amount would only be about .10%. In this
example, the lower cross hairs stretch below the boxes, so the correct setting
would be about 99.90% to bring them up.
Continue to print samples and fine-tune the scaling settings until the spacing of the
cross hairs is very close to the spacing of the registration boxes. Just do this on the
front side of the ballots; there is not a separate setting for the back. Once the
correct scaling options are set, they should not have to change from election to
election. It would be a good idea to check it in case the printer changes over time.
It is now time to fine-tune the horizontal and vertical offsets.
