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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

Thad Hall

AAAS WORKSHOP ON U.S. VOTING SYSTEM RESEARCH

Issue 1: Election Standard Operating Procedures

Most effective organizations have standards operating procedures (SOPs) that govern the behavior of actors in the organization. SOPs for elections would cover everything from the pre-election testing of machines to Election Day precinct activities to post election auditing. Unfortunately, there are no model SOPs for most aspects of election administration. Moreover, many states have very unclear election laws. For example, many of the new voter-verified paper audit trail laws do not specify what form is the official ballot, what to do if the two forms conflict, or how to secure the VVPAT canister. The EAC’s Vote Count and Recount Study will provide a baseline for understanding the SOPs for elections and for identifying best practices for an array of election activities. This study is being conducted by Thad Hall, Michael Alvarez (Caltech), and Doug Chapin (electionline.org).

Additional Research:

Understanding election operations management. How do we establish polling place practices and procedures to limit lines inside polls? Where do we site polls to maximize access and usability?
What is the best procedure for testing election equipment and for auditing election results?

Issue 2: Poll Workers

In almost all states, elections are administered by poll workers. One secretary of state has referred to poll workers as “street level lawyers” because they make determinations about who votes and how election laws are actually administered on Election Day. Yet we know little about poll workers and how voters view them. There is an effort ongoing by several scholars across the country to survey poll workers to understand better their attitudes and attribute. These surveys are being supplemented by surveys of voters in order to determine how voters view poll workers and the election process more generally.

Additional Research:

What is the most effective way to train poll workers? Is there a generic curriculum that would work nationally?
What type of information and how-to materials do poll workers need to do their jobs in the polling place on Election Day?

Issue 3: Confidence

We need to understand better the factors that affect voter confidence in democracy and in the vote counting process. One study done by Alvarez and Hall identified socio-demographic factors related to confidence in vote counting. Another study, done by Hall, Quin Monson, and Kelly Patterson (Brigham Young University) found that the quality of poll worker-voter interactions affect voter confidence. Given all of the change that is occurring in the election process, understanding what makes voters confidence in the electoral process is critical to maintaining public support for our election processes. It is important to determine what aspects of confidence are related to partisanship and election outcomes (“sore loser effects” and which aspects of confidence are attributable to factors that election officials can control.

Issue 4: Election Fraud

During every federal election, some election across the country results in a claim of election fraud. Unfortunately, we know little about election fraud in America, especially how to detect it and how to prevent it. Election fraud claims can obviously affect voter confidence. A set of papers are being published on this topic next year in an edited volume (Alvarez, Hall, and Hyde, editors) that will help election officials and other interested parties know how to use election data to identify anomalies in election results.

Issue 5: Election System Interoperability

There is a developing interest in making voter registration systems and voting systems interoperable. Interoperability will improve data exchange among state voter registration systems, which is important as voters remain highly mobile across state boundaries. The idea of interoperability and data exchange in voter registration has been outlined by Alvarez and Hall in a report for the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

Additional Research:

What state laws, processes, and procedures limit interoperability?
A pilot test of an interoperable voter registration system is needed among states to identify issues associated with this effort and to determine how to make interoperability most efficacious.

Issue 6: Future Technologies in Voting

As America continues its paper versus touchscreen debate, European and Asian nations are moving forward with tests of and the implementation of alternate voting technologies, such as Internet voting. Here, remote and non-Election Day voting is becoming more widely used through absentee and early voting, but not Internet voting.

Additional Research:

What can the United States learn from European and Asian Internet voting efforts?
A pilot test of various systems for UOCAVA voters that bypasses some, if not all, of the mail system