[dm_fan]

We've used different software all 3 years.

The first year we had a trial version of character recognition software and the expensive page feed scanner recommended by the software maker. If I recall correctly, the scanning software converted each scanned ballet into a line on a spreadsheet. Once all of the ballots were scanned, you had to sort the spreadsheet and manually make your list of winners. The full version of the software and the scanner were too expensive to make it feasible to continue using. Plus the ballets had to be full 8.5"x11" sheets of white paper printed with certain areas printed in color. Any folds, creases or smudges on a ballot caused the software to ask you to manually verify it's character recognition (which took time). It was a good idea but not as time saving as it should have been.

The second year I think a friend or relative of the guy in charge of the vote tallies wrote a database program specifically for us. You imported the registration info and manually entered the ballots and it did the tallies for you. I think it's biggest draw back was that it wasn't flexable at all. Any changes had to be made by the programmer, which could take a few days each to make. I don't know what the expense was on this one.

This past year, we used 69geeto's ballot software:
http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=528042
It took a little while to get the hang of but worked well. I think it was more complex than we needed in some respects and had some ther quirks. The final report should have handled ties better. But it's reasonably priced and works well. I think they may continue to use it in the future.

In year 2 & 3, each show had the software setup on it's own computer and each show had 1 person doing manual ballot entry. I don't have the totals in front of me but I think it was around 280 Pontiacs, 150 Musclecars and 70 Mustangs at this year's show. Although not all of the registered cars submitted their ballot, it gives you an idea of the volume.

I hope that helps

Steve