Posted Jan. 28, 2007

Study: E-Voting Problems Can Be Fixed

Governing.com

Critics of the security of electronic-voting technology are focusing on the wrong problem, according to a new study conducted by three state universities that says usability shortcomings cause voters to make too many mistakes in casting their ballots on the machines and that those concerns cannot be addressed by adding paper trails to touch-screen systems.

The five-year study comes as several states, including California, Florida, Maryland and Ohio, move to abandon the electronic-voting technology they put in place after the disputed 2000 presidential election and switch to systems using paper ballots and optical-scan technology over concerns about the electronic systems' security.

The new study, led by the University of Maryland and conducted with the University of Michigan and the University of Rochester, notes that paper ballots have their own security problems and that tampering with touch-screen systems requires greater technical skill. "The history of the paper ballot in the United States is checkered with ballot theft and ballot box stuffing," the study notes.

Voters expressed the most confidence in the paperless touch-screen systems to accurately record their votes, according to the study, which recommends a series of improvements to make the machines more user-friendly and for better training of poll workers. All six electronic voting systems that were tested for the study were judged favorably by more than 1,500 test subjects.

"Recent history is clear," said Paul S. Herrnson, a University of Maryland political scientist and the study's principal investigator. "The election problem most likely to tilt a close race is not security but the inability of voters to cast their ballots the way they intended."

The study's findings are reported in a book, Voting Technology: The Not-So-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot, published by the Brookings Institution.

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