Voter Information

Voting Equipment

Paper Ballot/Optical Scan Voting

This election year, all Madison County Voters going to the polls will be voting on the ImageCast voting system. The voter will sign the pollbook at the Inspector table as usual. If there are several districts voting at your pollsite, a pollsite coordinator will be set up near the entryway to assist you in finding the correct Inspector table.

Once signed in, an Inspector will hand you a paper ballot and offer you a privacy folder. Take the ballot over to the voting booth. The booth has 4 sections; three to stand at while marking the ballot and one that is wheelchair accessible to sit at while voting. There will be felt-tip markers in the booths and a magnifying sheet may be requested to assist in reading the ballot.

Choose the candidate(s) you wish to vote for and fill in the square by the candidate’s name completely. To write-in a different candidate for an office, write the name in the write-in box at the bottom of the office column. Any propositions will be on the back of the ballot. When you are finished voting the ballot, check it over carefully. If the boxes you marked are not filled in at least 25%, fill them in a little more.

If there are any extra marks on the ballot from your pen or if you made any marks in error, you will need to take your ballot back to the Inspector table. An Inspector will instruct you to rip the ballot in half and deposit it in the spoiled ballot envelope. Then you will be issued a new ballot. But be careful, you are only allowed up to three ballots if you keep making mistakes.

Once you are satisfied with your ballot, take it over to the ImageCast scanner. Simply insert the smooth edge of the ballot into the scanner slot. The LCD screen to the right of the scanner will read ‘Casting Ballot’, then ‘Ballot Successfully Cast’. That’s it!

Problems Scanning the Ballot

If there is any problem with the ballot the LCD screen will alert you.

• The Overvote warning means you have voted for more candidates than allowed in a contest. You may cast this ballot as is (the office you overvoted on will not be counted) or press the return button and go to the Inspector table to receive a new ballot.
• The Ambigious Marks warning means the scanner is reading extraneous marks on the ballot or the voting squares are not filled in enough. The scanner will eject this ballot and you will either have to fill in the voting squares more, or return the ballot to the Inspector table to receive a new one.
• The Blank Ballot warning is not reading any marks. The voter may cast this ballot as is or press the return button and mark the ballot.
• The Misread warning usually means the ballot just needs to be reinserted.

The BMD Voter

The Ballot Marking Device is available for anyone requesting to use it to assist in marking the ballot. An Inspector will activate the BMD for the voter and the audio/visual instructions will guide the voter through the process.

The ImageCast

View the ImageCast Voter Education Video now.