Election 2000: A Case Study in Human Factors and Design

Part II by Ann M. Bisantz Department of Industrial Engineering University at Buffalo

Calls for Improvements and Re-Design

Difficulties with the design of the “butterfly style” ballot and other aspects of the punch card system brought media and political attention to more general problems with all methods of voting (error rates of mechanical lever voting machines, optical scanning methods, etc.; Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, 2001a), the voting process more generally (registration process, verification of voters at the polls, training of poll workers, repair and maintenance of voting equipment), and various proposals for system redesign (Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, 2001b).  For instance, standards being developed by organizations such as the Federal Election Commission and IEEE include recommendations regarding the design of the user interface to the voting system, including requirements for user testing, access for disabled voters, and the provision of feedback to voters regarding errors (Federal Election Commission, 2002; IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 38, 2002).  Similar considerations (access for the disabled, recognition and correction of voting errors) are included in a recently signed federal law (“Help America Vote Act,” 2002).  Other groups have documented difficulties that physically and perceptually challenged individuals have in reaching polling places and casting votes privately and independently (Seelye, 2001).

Any redesigned system would have to insure that votes can be cast privately, quickly (to prevent long lines), with a minimum of instruction and training for voters as well as most poll workers, and securely (so that votes are cast accurately and that vote counting can not be tampered with).  Other issues of interest are requirements in some states for “full face” ballots (i.e., a ballot showing all offices and candidates simultaneously), laws in some states allowing (or disallowing) party-line votes (i.e., casting a single vote that registers votes for all candidates endorsed by a particular party), and the prevention of voting coercion or vote selling, which could occur if voters were able to produce a “receipt” proving who they had voted for (or may occur with paper absentee ballots or at home on-line voting).

One form of redesigned voting system is a direct-recording electronic device (DRE), implemented through a specialized kiosk system or on more off-the-shelf computer hardware (Mercuri, 2002; O'Hara, 2002).  Significant challenges in the design of such systems include system security and verification that all votes are recorded and tallied correctly.  The costs of implementation and providing enough systems to insure low waiting times at polling places are other problems.  However, the design of a voting kiosk, where voters directly enter their selections into a computer system, offers opportunities to reduce voter errors and provide a more satisfactory voting experience.

Design Exercise

To design DRE voting systems successfully, aspects of the user interface and methods of interaction with the system must be carefully considered.  In particular, the user population of voters is extremely diverse.  In your groups, complete the following:

1. Describe the voting population in terms of the voter age, experience with voting (semantic experience), computer experience (syntactic experience), physical abilities, perceptual abilities, and primary language.
2. Identify key aspects of the voting kiosk and user interface (both styles of interaction, and methods of input/output) that would be needed to accommodate variations within these characteristics and present these aspects in terms of design recommendations.
3. Propose a method for evaluating your design.  Consider methods of early (non-functional) and later (functional) prototyping.  Who would your test participants be?  What tasks would they perform?  What information would you collect?  How would you collect data?

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