Voting Technology The Not-So-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot

by Herrnson, Paul S.; Niemi, Richard G.; Hanmer, Michael J.

• ISBN13: 9780815735632
• ISBN10: 0815735634
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-28
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

"Voting difficulties hung over America's presidential election in 2000 like a dark cloud. Passage of the Help America Vote Act in 2002 sparked further interest in the physical act of casting a vote, leading to a number of technological innovations. Voting Technology is the first book to investigate in a scientific and authoritative manner how voters respond to the new equipment. An interdisciplinary group, the authors synthesize their work in American politics, campaigns, human and computer interaction, and human factors. They employ their collective expertise in evaluating five commercially available voting systems, each one representing a specific class based on shared design principles, as well as one prototype system not currently available. They evaluate each system according to key criteria such as accuracy, speed, and ease of use. The results reveal the good and bad about the systems, including specific features that contribute to greater clarity as well as those leading to confusion and error."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Michael W. Traugott is professor of communication studies and senior research scientist in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Frederick G. Conrad is research associate professor in survey methodology at the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland. Benjamin B. Bederson is associate professor of computer science and director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland. Michael J. Hanmer is assistant professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. Richard G. Niemi is Don Alonzo Watson Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester. Paul S. Herrnson is director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship and professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Study of Electronic Voting	p. 1
A New Generation of Voting Systems	p. 18
Voter Reactions to Electronic Voting Systems	p. 44
The Accuracy of Electronic Voting Systems	p. 67
Inequality in the Voting Booth	p. 91
Vote Verification Systems	p. 111
Toward More User-Friendly Voting and Election Systems	p. 137
Appendixes
Voter Information Guides and Questionnaires	p. 153
Characteristics of Respondents in the Field Studies	p. 171
Regression Results for Chapters 5 and 6	p. 173
Notes	p. 187
Authors	p. 209
Index	p. 211
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