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6 The Broader Context of Electronic Voting
Pages 106-129

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From page 106...
... While the two previous chapters have addressed questions that election officials might reasonably pose in the course of deciding whether and how to move toward electronic voting, this chapter discusses this larger context in which electronic voting is 106
From page 107...
... With high-quality, consistent data in hand, a great deal more can be learned about the workings of voting machines, voter registration systems, and reforms in different states that would inform the election administration process. For instance, it would provide a basis for security assessments and transparency evaluations.
From page 108...
... 6.3 PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN ELECTIONS Election officials have been very concerned that various election problems in recent election years (most particularly in 2000, and to a lesser extent in 2002 and 2004) have shaken public confidence in elections, with the likely impact of depressing voter turnout in the short term and potentially undermining the legitimacy of government in the longer term.
From page 109...
... Hasen, "Beyond the Margin of Litigation: Reforming U.S. Election Administration to Avoid Electoral Meltdown," to be delivered at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1-4, 2005, and forthcoming in Washington and Lee Law Review 62 (2005)
From page 110...
... Understanding how these new technologies (and the publicity regarding their introduction) may affect the nature and extent of voter turnout among different demographic groups is likely to be of interest to election officials.
From page 111...
... Voter registration systems are highly customized to the needs of individual states and are thus developed in close cooperation with state election officials. Inasmuch as certification ensures that a certified system meets a minimum set of functional and performance requirements, certification of voter registration systems could impose a greater degree of uniformity on voter registration practices across states.
From page 112...
... But when testing authorities compete against each other for business, a vendor can select the authorities most favorable to its products or negotiate for realities of software development against fixed deadlines mean that time is limited, and election officials may be faced with two unpalatable alternatives -- not fixing a problem or fixing it with uncertified or unqualified software. (Vendors are also likely to argue that the fix is not "large enough" to warrant recertification, as discussed in Section 4.2.2.3.)
From page 113...
... These bodies could also be empowered to receive reports of voting system irregularities that intentionally bypass election officials on the chance that these officials might have had some responsibility for these irregularities or some incen tive for covering them up. This approach is based on lessons learned in the finan cial industry, which underscore the importance of upward communication routes that bypass an entire chain of administrative command en route to an outside independent audit committee.
From page 114...
... 6.5 FUNDING AND SUSTAINING IMPROVEMENT Aggregated over all jurisdictions and as a rough average, election administration costs the states about a billion dollars per year, regardless of year and prior to the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) , of which a very small fraction is for procurement of equipment.5 Appropriations for HAVA have added significant sums (several billion dollars)
From page 115...
... As for the appropriate level of R&D investment, the committee observes without comment that information-intensive industries in the private sector typically spend about 10 percent of their gross revenues in R&D activities of various sorts. If election administration is regarded as an information-intensive enterprise, R&D investments of about $100 million per year might be expected.
From page 116...
... These advocates believe that this kind of independent oversight could improve security and enhance public confidence by quelling unfounded concerns and rumors.8 8An important element of aviation safety in the United States is the Aviation Safety Reporting System, under which information contained in or derived from properly submitted reports of incidents potentially related to aviation safety or the violation of Federal Aviation Administration regulations cannot be used in any disciplinary action, except in cases of criminal offenses or accidents. By analogy, a standing body on voting systems might invite anonymous reporting of mistakes, and treat these reports as opportunities to learn rather than initiate action against culpable parties.
From page 117...
... Some of these principles may be relevant to the management of electronic voting machines. On the other hand, there are also substantial differences be tween the gambling and voting environments.
From page 118...
... Election officials may wish to engage the services of others to help break this asymmetry.
From page 119...
... Gore mean for decisions about voting technologies and their supporting infrastructure? Traditionally, local election jurisdictions have controlled election administration and acquisition of voting systems.
From page 120...
... To the extent that private firms are involved in those aspects of election administration that relate to electronic voting systems, a number of important questions do arise, some of which cut across other areas discussed elsewhere in this report.
From page 121...
... But if private parties have a legitimate claim to the data, government officials are unlikely to have comparably unfettered access to that data, especially if such data might embarrass or compromise those private parties in some manner. For example, if election officials wish to audit an election to see where improvements are needed, vendors may be reluctant to share data indicating that their systems operated improperly.
From page 122...
... When private parties play an integral role in election administration, lines of responsibility are less clear than when government is responsible for all significant aspects of election administration. And, to the extent that laws intended to ensure properly conducted elections are targeted at election officials, these laws may need to be updated to include private parties that have assumed certain responsibilities previously associated with election officials.
From page 123...
... THE BROADER CONTEXT OF ELECTRONIC VOTING 123 · How can voters be reassured that a vote cast in a certain way has indeed been counted that way in the tabulation? 9 Note that this question goes far beyond the question of a voter-verified audit trail, since such a trail only provides assurances that the vote was recorded as cast.
From page 124...
... On the one hand, they might increase costs by re quiring the handling of large volumes of paper, a task that election officials hope to reduce or eliminate through the use of electronic vot ing. On the other hand, a long-term analysis might show that they can lower costs by reducing the expenses entailed in contested elections.
From page 125...
... THE BROADER CONTEXT OF ELECTRONIC VOTING 125 6-29. What special data collection requirements are associated with auditing elections conducted with electronic voting systems?
From page 126...
... 126 ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS ABOUT ELECTRONIC VOTING conventional wisdom is that the use of such off-the-shelf commodity equipment is not well adapted to the security and usability requirements of voting, which is a very specialized application. And this point of view may well be correct.
From page 127...
... On the other hand, absentee voter registration requires methods for authenticating potential registrants that do not involve face-to-face interaction with local election officials. Absentee voter registration using electronic systems further raises the possibility that falsified voter registration might be undertaken on a large scale.
From page 128...
... . Research on Election Administration One of the more overlooked components of the voting system by researchers has been how the voting process is administered.
From page 129...
... · What are the means by which voting technologies can be designed to provide effective audit trails (e.g., paper or computer images)


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