Improving Voting Systems’ User-Friendliness, Reliability, & Security

About half of Americans have limited confidence that their vote will be properly counted. These fears have focused attention on voting system reliability, security, and usability. Over the last decade, substantial research on voting systems has demonstrated that many systems are less usable and secure than they should be. Producing truly reliable voting systems demands more than just following the federal guidelines enacted in 2005 (which, although well intentioned, have failed to substantially improve current systems) or simply updating voting systems to electronic voting computers using monies allocated by the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA). In fact, HAVA has inadvertently led to the purchase of systems that may have actually increased the vote error rate. Key reforms needed to deliver reliable voting systems include substantial testing for usability especially regarding the accurate capture of voter intent and the reduction of voter error rates, and measures to ensure the integrity of elections, such as election officials’ ability to secure ballots.