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Cambridge Upgrades
Vote Counting Software
October 15,
2001
Voting Solutions
Announces City of Cambridge Upgrades Vote Counting Software With
ChoicePlus Pro
Voting Solutions, a leading
developer and marketer of data processing software for ranked-ballot
election systems in the U.S., announced that the Board of Election
Commissioners of the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts has selected
Voting Solutions' ChoicePlus Pro 2.1 software to process its
upcoming City Council and School Committee elections.
Powerful and flexible, ChoicePlus
Pro (formerly PR Master) is the leading software used for tabulating
ranked-ballot elections in the U.S. including Choice Voting (Single
Transferable Vote or STV), and Instant Run-Off Voting (IRV or
Alternative Voting). ChoicePlus Pro is the only computer program
that has ever been used to count ranked-ballot style government
elections in the United States, including Cambridge, MA, City
Council and School Committee, and the New York City Community School
Boards elections.
"ChoicePlus Pro is fast and
accurate and gives us the ability to publish unofficial results on
Election Night and official results the next day," explained Teresa
Neighbor, executive director of the City of Cambridge Board of
Election Commissioners. "It used to take an entire week counting by
hand. But now we can expect to get results into the paper the next morning."
The City of Cambridge,
Massachusetts uses the choice voting (STV) form of Proportional
Representation to elect its nine-member City Council and six-member
School Committee. Voters rank the candidates by preference: first
choice, second choice and so on. If a voter's first choice is
defeated then the ballot counts for the voter's second choice, and
so on. This voting method ensures that all majority and minority
viewpoints are both fairly represented on the City Council and
School Committee.
Voters mark their preferences by
their first choice candidate, second choice, third choice, and so
on. Voters then feed their ballots into optical scanners developed
by Global Election Systems and the election data is transferred to a
PC. Voting Solutions' ChoicePlus Pro program then processes the
election data within minutes, and produces detailed reports that
permit a complete audit of the election.
See http://www.votingsolutions.com/camb99council/COUNCIL%20Round.htm
to examine the Cambridge election data from 1999 as processed by
Voting Solutions software to see how votes are transferred round by
round until all seats are filled by STV.
Ranked-ballot voting as employed
in Cambridge is used widely around the world and is swiftly gaining
popularity in the U.S, as many jurisdictions have approved the use
of IRV as an alternative to expensive runoff and special elections
as it produces a clear majority winner on Election Day.
"Ranked-ballot voting systems
truly make every vote count," noted Rob Richie, executive director
of the Center for Voting and Democracy, a non-partisan organization
that promotes fair elections. "They can also save jurisdictions the
cost of runoff elections. San Francisco stands to save up to $2
million per year by implementing instant runoff voting in next
year's ballot measure. Cambridge demonstrates that with modern
voting equipment and software like ChoicePlus Pro, you can have
ranked-ballot election results on Election Night."
Voting Solutions, LLC is a
closely held partnership based in Oakland. For more information,
contact Voting Solutions by phone at 925/676-1974, or by e-mail at
[email protected]. Please visit Voting Solutions' website at
http://www.votingsolutions.com
CONTACT:
Voting Solutions
Bill Gram-Reefer, 925/676-1974
[email protected]
www.votingsolutions.com
or
Board Of Elections, Cambridge, MA
Teresa Neighbor, 617/349-4361
[email protected]
or
Center for Voting and Democracy
Rob Richie, 301/270-4616
[email protected] |
