landscape and party-row layout on AVTS

States which do "full face" aka "grid" aka "party-row" ballot layout would like this feature incorporated into the AVTS. Support for landscape party-row paper layout was added to GEMS in early 2000.

The R6 AVTS hardware allows for landscape ballots: users can rotate the screen by 90 degrees to the right and lock into landscape mode. This feature is to my knowledge unique to our system. Software support for landscape mode is in the works and should be complete this year.

Party-row layout is a bit more complicated. We can certainly develop our software to layout the ballot in any way we like, but we are ultimately constrained by the number of pixels on the screen. A typical 8x11 paper party-row ballot would appear completely illegible on the touch screen due to lack of resolution. Most (all?) states that require party-row ballots also require that all parties, and sometimes even that all races, appear on the same "page". This will not work on the touch screen. We will attempt to develop a layout that adheres to the spirit of party-row layout, but some corners will have to be cut. There is currently no schedule for completion of this project.

As a final note, the whole motivation for party-row ballot layout is based on antiquated voting hardware that these very states are trying to replace. States who refuse to change their voting laws to match the strengths and weaknesses of these new systems will ultimately be left behind.