Getting the Ballots Right

-- graphic arts online, 1/1/2001

The recent brouhaha about ballots brings to mind that one of the most accurate ballot tabulation methods is printing on digital presses. Providing such a service is Spectrum, Ltd., Mountlake Terrace, Wash., which recently became a part of Global Election Systems, McKinney, Tex.

Optically scanned ballots, like the MarkSense absentee ballots that Spectrum prints on its Xeikon digital presses, have an overall accuracy rate of one error/unreadable ballot in 500, compared to one error/unreadable ballot in 10 using punch-card ballots, according to recent statistics reported in The Wall Street Journal.

Spectrum's variable-data database product, FrontEnd, converts client data into graphic fields that are RIPped and sent to the presses and ink-jet printers. This unique approach includes thousands of different graphic elements, such as candidate names and voter information for various jurisdictions.

Jeff Dean, Spectrum vice president, says, "Two things about the election services business are absolutes: first, you can never make a mistake, and second, you can never be late. Variable-data printing enables us to get it right every time."

Spectrum, which owns one of the original Xeikon presses in the U.S., serves as a demonstration site for Canopy, LLC, its integrator and a leading developer of on-demand digital printing solutions.