For those of you who still want to better understand what a Cast Vote Record is here are the basics. It is actually very simple.
What is a Cast Vote Record (CVR)?
From the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) manual Nov 2019: A CVR is an electronic record of a voter’s selections, with usually one CVR created per sheet (page) of a ballot. Election results are produced by tabulating the collection of CVRs, and audits can be done by comparisons of the paper ballots or paper records of voter selections against the CVRs.
The CVR (Cast Vote Record) consists of several components: the ballot images aka the (CVRi), the information summarized from each ballot the (CVRc), and the database/spreadsheet of all ballots (in relative order, not the exact order as it is randomized in batches of 100 or 200).
Here is a sample of each:
Here is another sample of the CVR spreadsheet from Arkansas
There are many complex operations performed by voting devices when voters submit their paper ballots to be scanned. These operations are mostly invisible to voters but are necessary to determine whether contest selections have been marked adequately and whether voter intent is reflected by what is marked on the ballot. Thus, the CVR is an important audit tool that provides transparency to an otherwise opaque process. It is a way we can determine what the progression of the vote is inside the tabulator.
Our current system in SC focuses on total end count but is this truly sufficient? If you were to audit a bank account would you look at just the end balance on the statement? Of course not. You would want to examine all flows in and out of the account over a certain time period. This is essentially what a CVR report accomplishes.
This data is helpful to look for anomalies and irregularities. Note also that since batches of records (not the entire database) of the CVR are randomized it is near impossible to determine who voted at a specific time. Furthermore, there is an ability for write ins and areas where there are only a few voters with certain unique ballot styles to be filtered out to further ensure that no ballot can be tied back to a voter.
CVRs are a common audit tool for elections that have been around since the mid-2000s. They were meant for election officials and the public alike to verify the vote accuracy.
The CVRs contain all or some of the following fields. (Fields marked with an asterisk are strongly desired)
*CVR Number
*Tabulator ID
* Counting Group (or other name – this tells how the vote was cast)
Batch ID
*Precinct ID
Ballot Type
What does NOT appear in a Cast Vote Record is any information which would identify the voter.
They contain, at a minimum, the specific candidates or races which were counted, and the selections chosen by a voter.
The vendors Dominion Voting Systems, Clear Ballot, and Election Systems & Software can produce a Cast Vote Record in one or several text CSV (Comma Separated Variable length) files, which contain the records of one ballot per line. This file is sometimes converted to an Excel Spreadsheet format for transmission to the public.
The bottom line is that CVRs provide essential information about our elections that allow us to better understand how our vote is counted. Our SC Constitution states “our votes must be cast in secret but not counted in secret.” The value of providing public access to these reports outweighs the concerns of “privacy.” After our votes are cast they are no longer private and there is no way to tie these ballots to a voter.
Our judicial and legislative branch needs to do the right thing and improve transparency of the election process. There is a reason they call the FOIA law the Sunshine law. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.