Voting Technology: The Not-so-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot

[Wilms]

A 3% error rates, but the average American prefers DREs. And the vendors are only too willing to spin the report in their favor, perhaps hoping to improve DRE sales that are probably getting really thin.

Study: Voters prefer e-voting, but tech has limits

A new study suggests voters are comfortable with e-voting machines, but make errors at higher rates than with paper.

Grant Gross
PC World
Saturday, March 22, 2008; 10:19 AM

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Voters generally were most comfortable with some models of touch-screen e-voting machines, often called direct record electronic (DRE) machines, when tested against paper ballots and e-voting machines using buttons and dials, said thestudy, published by the Brookings Institute, a centrist think tank.

In five DRE systems researchers tested, the error rate of the worst-performing machines was 3 percent in a simple task such as voting for president, researchers said. In more complex races, the error rate, the rate at which voters voted for the wrong candidate, was higher. Researchers urged voting machine manufacturers and elections officials to focus more on ballot design, saying badly designed ballots caused many of the problems.

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In addition, voters seemed to approve of verification systems such as printouts that accompany some DREs, but the verification systems didn't significantly cut the error rate of DREs and often caused confusion and prompted voters to seek help from poll workers, said the study, conducted by political science and computer science professors from the University of Maryland, the University of Rochester and the University of Michigan. The study has been published in a book, "Voting Technology: The Not-so-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot."

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"We chose not to study , because that wasn't the problem the United States faced in 2000," he said. "The problem our country has faced is usability, the problem of folks being able to cast their votes as intended."

Representatives of e-voting machine manufacturers praised the study. Sequoia Voting Systems' experience with voters has mirrored the study's suggestion that they approve of DREs, said Michelle Shafer, the company's vice president for communications and external affairs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/22/AR2008032201127.html