Day 2 - What is TallyJ?

TallyJ is the fruit of a dream by Glen Little that started in the late 1990's. It has now grown to be the "Bahá'í Election Tally System" and will continue to grow!

It is a web application that helps tellers do their job better and faster. The first version was used for an election at Riḍván 2002 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and has been improved every year since then. In 2011, a new version was introduced that is a strong foundation for future additions.

What does it actually do?

The core part of TallyJ has always been a place for tellers to type in the names found on each paper ballot. Here is a sample of the ballot entry screen:

Before starting, the names of all the voters is loaded into TallyJ. Then when adding a name to the ballot, typing just a few letters (A) finds matching names quickly (B). In this picture you can see that two of the matching names are colored differently, because they are already on the ballot. They can still be used, but the ballot would become spoiled because of duplicate names. If an individual vote on the ballot is spoiled, then the teller can indicate why it is spoiled (C). The ballot status (D) shows the current status of this ballot - here showing "Too Few" because a few more names are needed yet.

Once all the ballots are entered, TallyJ checks each one for spoiled ballots, then checks for tied votes that need a tie-break, then generates reports showing the results.

Beyond this core function, TallyJ does a lot more too! That will be explained more over the coming days.

Next day >>>