2014 General Ballot Programmer Requirements

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2014 General Ballot Programmer Requirements. Programmer Requirements 1. At least six years experience of ballot programming of Statewide elections including Federal and State elections. 2. At least six years experience with GEMS election management system, version 1.18.24 and Ballot Station 4.6.4 Required Duties 1. Pursuant to SBE’s ballot standards guide, set up databases for all 24 county local boards of elections (LBEs) using the export from Maryland’s Election Management system (EMS). 2. Ballot programming software that must be used is GEMS, version 1.18.24 and Ballot Station 4.6.4. 3. Layout TS ballots and program memory cards to send to LBEs for proofing. 4. Layout OS ballots on a single ballot card, where possible, using the front and back and print the ballots to send to the LBEs for proofing. SBE will require a PDF of the ballot styles as well. 5. Audio Ballot – The GEMS databases will be required to be sent to the recording studio for professional recording of the audio ballot. The ballot programmer may be responsible for managing this process depending on audio vendor. 6. Print out various GEMS reports by county to send with the ballot proofing packages. 7. Export the Base Precincts with Cards report for ballot reordering in EMS. 8. Provide SBE with alternate OS ballots formatted to 11 inches, only when Election Day OS ballots are larger than 11 inches, for faxing and emailing (the ballot styles must match the styles of the election day OS ballots using the same naming convention used in GEMS – Primary Election: 1-1DEM-FB.pdf and General Election: 1-1-NP-FB.pdf) - these ballot styles can be on more than one card, however, all cards for the ballot style must be included in a single PDF document. 9. Screenshots of each ballot style in both English and Spanish, where applicable, taken in ‘by precinct’ mode, so that the correct buttons are displayed, with the background color changed to white. The naming convention of the screenshots should be the ballot style number (ex. Ballot Style 5) and should match the ballot styles of the election day TS ballots. The screenshots must be taken so that the layout of the contests and the length of the ballot match the election day TS ballots. 10. Create PostScript files and PDF files of the final OS ballots for the printer and provide them to SBE. Required Timeframe 1. General Election – August 25, 2014 through September 14, 2014 for in-State consultation. September 15 2014 to September 26 for out-of-State consultation.