A Fallible "Fail-Safe": An Analysis of Provisional Balloting Problems in the 2006 Election

A Fallible 'Fail-Safe' provides a snapshot of provisional balloting problems experienced by voters across the nation in November 2006, as reported by Election Protection volunteers. While provisional ballots may comprise only a fraction of the national vote, as this report shows, they determined the outcome of various electoral races in 2006

Designing and generating prototype for E-Governance based election strategy using biometric authentication and smart card device

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Testimony on Voter Verification

In the past five years, following the 2000 Florida election fiasco, the voting technologies used in the United States have undergone a significant change. The use of direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines has increased and provided great opportunities for advances in accessibility and voting user interface design. Auditing steps of elections is important. Demonstrating that a computer program in a optical scan or DRE system is collecting them correctly must be done by testing and might be improved by redundant media created by separate means (electronic, or physical). One audit trail proposal is for the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The VVPAT system adds a printer to a machine and adds an extra step to the end of the voting process when the voter prints out and approves a paper receipt of their vote. We have introduced the idea of a voter verified audio audit transcript trail (VVAATT). A VVAATT system adds audio feedback to the voting process. The audio feedback is recorded and the recording serves as an audit for the election

Security Vulnerabilities and Problems with VVPT

A proposed Voter Verifiable Paper Trail (VVPT) includes a printed ballot as a receipt that a voter can view to verify their vote before leaving an electronic voting machine. This method is also supposed to insure the accuracy of the recorded vote by allowing the tally to be checked later by counting the collected receipts. This paper considers problems with ergonomics, logistics, security, fraud, and mechanical fragility with using VVPT. Ergonomic problems are introduced by the receipt having a different layout than the ballot, difficulty remembering previous selections to make the verification, by the extra step it introduces after making selections and by it not working well for sightless people. Logistics problems include difficulties in collecting and organizing the receipts, transporting them, and reading and reconciling them with electronic tallies. Security issues include the possibility that receipts can be systematically misprinted in a way that cannot be detected and that hand counting will not easily detect fraud. Mechanical problems include printer breakdowns and supplies running out. VVPTs could add problems by being questioned in various ways or though the development of computer programs that defraud the VVPT systematically. VVPTs do not address existing sources of disenfranchisement such as registration problems, equipment and ballot problems, and polling place problems. Experiments and elections have yet to establish that people can in fact verify their ballots using a paper receipt. Effective approaches for accurately counting the paper receipts for auditing purposes have not been established either. Proving that an election correctly records and transmits the intention of the voter is worthwhile. Computers are the first technology that can easily report voting results in multiple formats. Simple systems-verification solutions are possible. Parallel voting and time shifted testing require no extra equipment. Voter Verified Audio Transcripts would simplify voting and improve audit security by presenting verification as feedback during the selection process rather than post hoc auditing

Requirement specifications for electronic voting systems

This paper presents an analysis of the requirements specification in electronic voting systems. In particular, it poses a specification that assumes a physical distributed architecture model with two networked intelligent units (Voting Terminal and Authorities Terminal). State Transition Diagrams and Use Cases are used in the modeling of the requirements. Finally, the model adaptation to two classes of different elections is analyzed: a national election of closed daily cycle and a university election with a cycle of several days, both with multiple objectives.Facultad de Informátic

Who counts and who is counted? Conversations around voting, access, and divisions in the disability community

Online voting platforms have been introduced in some locations as the solution to the many barriers to political participation that disabled people continue to face. Reading the experiences of disabled student voters on university campuses alongside broader trends in electoral reform taking place in jurisdictions across Canada allows us to attend to the dangerous ways in which conversations around access have been limited through virtual solutions that encourage the physical absence of disabled voters. This article situates these absences alongside other categories of exclusion–including groups who are formally disenfranchised–and recalls many unstated values that are active in shaping citizenship cultures. Probing online voting through a critical disability angle, we present a critique of techno-fixes that builds upon broader notions of accessibility and inclusion

American Elections: A Critical Moment for Research and Reform

The 2004 election provided important lessons regarding the performance of voting technology, about continuing problems with voter registration and provisional balloting, issues with procedures and poll site voting practices, and raised questions about the liberalization of early and absentee voting. There are a series of important issues that should be the focus of the election research and reform agenda in coming years: Developing and implementing statewide voter registration databases; Improving poll site practices; Should ballot casting be tied to geography?; Electronic voting security, integrity, and reliability; Internet registration and voting; Achieving a more open and auditable election administration process; Understanding the preferences and perceptions of the consumers of election administration products -- citizens and voters

From Registration to Recounts Revisited: Developments in the Election Ecosystems of Five Midwestern States

As a follow-up to a study of problems during the 2006 elections, examines the states' continuing adjustments to institutional arrangements, voter registration databases, convenience voting, and post-election processes in the 2008 elections