Computer Experts Say More Required to Improve E-Voting
Electronic voting experts from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) have concluded that November’s midterm elections produced a mixed bag of results on new e-voting systems.
Problems were not as widespread as some had feared, but serious flaws in the technology were seen in several states. In an informal survey of selected locations, ACM’s experts reported on voters unable to cast ballots due to programming errors, e-voting machines incorrectly flipping votes from one candidate to another, and long lines due to design flaws in voter registration lists.
In particular, the experts pointed to e-voting machine errors in Indiana that delayed poll openings, and electronic registration problems that plagued several places in Colorado.
ACM says that these examples demonstrate that there still is work to do to strengthen the electronic voting system.
Eugene Spafford, chair of ACM’s U.S. Public Policy Committee, director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) at Indiana’s Purdue University, and a professor of computer science at Purdue, points out the need to include the computing community in efforts to improve e-voting systems. He cites insufficient involvement of technical experts and usability professionals in the new voter technology, and says that closer collaboration between election officials, vendors, and the computing community will improve the systems.
Voters also were frustrated by extensive delays due to problems with registration lists. Former ACM President Barbara Simons notes that serious problems with voter databases were due to system design flaws and that the systems need to be pretested under conditions that simulate Election Day. She also points to reported problems in many states that stemmed from data entry errors and database merges that should have been checked for accuracy well before the election and under careful controls.
Simons co-authored an ACM report on Voter Registration Databases (VRD) that includes recommendations to help states comply with federal laws that require computerized statewide electronic databases. The nearly 100 high-level recommendations are designed to ensure that electronic records of information submitted by citizens registering to vote are accurate, private, and secure.
Simons also advises that even if e-voting machines appear to function correctly, they should still have voter-verified paper ballots or easily tallied audit trails to protect against software bugs or malicious computer code.
Harry Hochheiser, a member of ACM’s U.S. Public Policy Committee, who also is professor of Computer and Information Sciences at Towson University and a member of the VRD committee, says that understanding the interaction between humans and technology is critical to ensuring that these systems function properly. He calls for careful training and rigorous testing of computerized voting and electronic registration systems, as well as cooperation between the technical community and the election community, to prevent problems in the future.
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is an educational and scientific society uniting the world’s computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence.
