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REVISITING THE U.S. VOTING SYSTEM: A RESEARCH INVENTORY

November 27-28, 2006

Convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Juan E. Gilbert

PRIME III: ADDRESSING USABILITY AND SECURITY IN ELECTRONIC VOTING

Subsequent to the debacle of the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, it became abundantly clear that America’s archaic voting system was in dire need of a major overhaul. Consequently, the federal government allocated funds for the purchase of modern voting equipment. More specifically, Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines are under consideration for use in a number of states. Incidentally, electronic voting machines are currently being used in a select few counties throughout the United States. Unfortunately, this has not been without controversy.

For example, it has been widely reported by the media, that electronic voting machines pose a number of unacceptable risks. In fact, news agencies such as the Miami Herald, Wired News and others have noted that electronic voting systems have been found to be quite vulnerable to hackers, malignant workers, faulty code, lack of recount ability, and human error. These security issues have eroded voter confidence in the electronic voting process and have intimidated non-technical savvy voters. Therefore, a system must be built that can address these aforementioned issues and instill voter confidence in the electronic voting process. Consequently, it is no longer sufficient for a system to simply be secure; the voter must feel confident in the integrity of the system. Additionally, the system must be easy to navigate and use for all segments of the voter population. In research conducted at Auburn University in the Human Centered Computing Lab, the Prime III electronic voting system has been developed.

Prime III delivers the requisite system security, integrity, and user satisfaction safeguards in a user friendly, secure, electronic voting system. Moreover, Prime III incorporates the current voting process that the voter is accustomed to using and significantly improves upon it. This approach allows the voter to remain comfortable and confident while using an enhanced voting system. The Prime III voting process begins when the voter enters the voting precinct. The voter is verified with the election officials using the pre-defined process for that precinct for state, i.e. showing the official an acceptable form of identification (ID). After the voter is verified, the voter is handed a unique ballot card. The voter takes the ballot card to an empty voting booth. The voting booth contains a single sheet printer, a touch screen and a headset. The voter places their ballot card into the printer and is subsequently presented with the option of using the touch screen, headset with an embedded microphone or both to cast their ballot. The Prime III system has an integrated automatic speech recognition (ASR) system which can be accessed through the headset. The implementation of a robust multimodal system (text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and touch) facilitates voter interaction with the system in a private manner, even if the voter has a physical disability, i.e. anything from arthritis, to a visual impairment. Voters that can’t see, hear or read, can still vote! When a voter uses the ASR component of the Prime III system they are prompted through the choice of candidates via the headset. Each candidate is assigned a randomly generated number that the voter can select by simply saying the number. For example, the first candidate is assigned a random number and incremental numbers are assigned for each additional candidate. This is done so that when the user articulates the number corresponding to a candidate, no other voter will know which candidate they are voting for.

After the voter finishes voting via the touch screen and/or the headset, their selection is displayed and spoken to them. The voter is required to confirm the selection using touch or speech. Upon review and confirmation from the voter, the system prints out the corresponding ballot card and records a virtual vote on a Prime III server. Additionally, the voter is able to observe the system while it records the vote and prints their ballot card. This provides an assurance that even in the unlikely event of a system malfunction, there is a redundant paper trail of the vote. Next, the voter exits the voting booth and places their ballot card into the ballot box.

Last but not least, Prime III implements several security measures to protect the vote counts. These security measures incorporate physical security, hardware and software techniques to protect the entire system and the vote counts.

For additional information on Prime III, see the following links:

http://www.PrimeVotingSystem.com

http://www.primevotingsystem.com/PrimeIII.wmv

http://www.ocm.auburn.edu/news_releases/elec.html

http://www.PrimeVotingSystem.com/OANew-PrimeIII.pdf