Process QLogs

The processing of QLogs—sometimes called post processing—ensures that all transactions performed by EViD devices during voting are recorded. QLogs are TXT files that contain the transactions collected by EViD devices during early voting and on Election Day. Transactions include voter check-ins, name and address changes, new registrations, and provisional ballots issued.

Transactions are collected on flash drives at the end of the voting day. A flash drive is inserted in each EViD device when the EViD is shut down and the EViD’s QLogs are automatically copied to the flash drive. The drives are then collected at the county elections office for processing. The QLogs can be copied from EViD devices to any flash drive. The drive need not be an EViD activator.

The Process QLogs program first copies transactions that were not transmitted over Web Services from flash drives to the jurisdiction database, then processes any that have not already been processed against the appropriate voter records. Unless you had communications problems during voting, all transactions have already transmitted over the Internet. The Process QLogs program captures any transactions that were not transmitted due to a communications failure. Transactions that were transmitted successfully from the polling place are ignored during QLog processing.

Note:
  • Normally, even a communications failure of some duration will not prevent the complete transmission of data. The data will simply be sent when communications are restored. However, if communications fail before an EViD device is shut down and they are not restored by the end of the voting day, transactions performed after the failure are not transmitted to the database via normal communications.
  • Qlogs from Voter Outreach events consist of address changes only.

QLogs must be processed at least twice for an election — 1) at the close of the Early Voting period and 2) at the close of Election Day voting.

In addition:

  • QLogs should be processed for any location or individual EViD device that had a communication failure that was not restored before the close of day. Keep in mind, this can apply to just one EViD rather than an entire location. If only one EViD experienced a problem, such as in the case of failed hardware, you only need to post process the activator for that one workstation.
  • We recommend processing as often as logistically possible during early voting. This will reduce the amount of time needed to run the program at the close of Early Voting.

Repeated processing has no effect on transactions already transmitted to the database; they are simply ignored. Only transactions not found in the database are processed.

Tip: Determine the amount of time it takes to process QLogs at the end of the early voting period. This may give an indication of how often QLog processing should be done for your county. If the total time is manageable, then perhaps you can reduce the number of times QLogs are processed during early voting.

The EViDQLogs user permission is required to run the program.

Multiple users can perform steps 1-3 below from different workstations at the same time to speed the process of collecting data. Step 4 can only be done by a single user.

  1. In EViD Manager, go to EViD > Process QLogs.

  2. On the EViD QLogs dialog, select the election and then click Collect data from activators. Plug in the jump drive you want to process. Repeat this step for each jump drive containing EViD transactions.

  3. Once you have collected all data from all the jump drives, click Process collected Data to add the missing transactions to the database.

  4. When processing is complete, you have the option of clicking Process Report to display a report of Qlogs processed for the location. You only need to review this report once per location as it will contain the information for all EViDs processed from that location. This report can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet.

  5. Click Exit. The Process QLogs program concludes with information on how many logs it read and how many of those were processed into the database