In June 2001, UPA and SIGCHI collaborated to bring the issue of usability in elections to the attention of all their members.
Last November, America was riveted as the presidential election hung in the balance while ballots in Florida and other states were counted and re-counted. We learned a lot about the technical difficulties of managing an election in a country as large as the USA. But we also heard from people who felt disenfranchised by the ballot itself.
There were voices like the voter who told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “It was so hard to tell who and what you were voting for. I couldn’t figure it out, and I have a doctorate.“ There were also those with disabilities who find polling places a maze of hazards, and those who faced other challenges simply casting their vote.
These events were not triggered by corruption, but by a well-intentioned official without the usability guidelines she needed to do her job well. The morning after the election, Theresa LePore, the designer of the infamous butterfly ballot said, “I was trying to make the ballot more readable for our elderly voters in Palm Beach County. I was trying to do a good thing.” (In case you missed the pictures of the ballot, there is a simulation of it online at www.sun-sentinel.com/graphics/news/ballot.htm.)
Clearly, this is an opportunity to make the case for usability, and UPA and SIGCHI have resolved to work together to help find a better solution for designing usable and accessible ballots. But what’s happened in the six months since the election? Has this issue simply faded away? Far from it.
A number of different bills have been introduced in the US Congress. Some focus on security and voting machinery; others include support for usability and accessibility research, and call for a commission, run by an organization such as NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology), on voting standards and technology. One bill proposes an independent laboratory to perform research in areas such as human factors in the design and application of voting systems and remote access voting systems that would utilize the Internet.
How can you help?
First, if you are a US citizen you can get in touch with your congressmen and let them know how important you think usability in voting is to the strength of our democracy. Better technology is not enough. Voice your support for human factors standards and the research necessary to create them well. A sample letter is included that you can use as a starting point. House and Senate directories are available on Thomas
Also for US citizens, if you’d like to do something more hands-on, you can get involved locally. The League of Women Voters has made election administration reform their top priority. They have local chapters across the country. Or, contact your local or state Board of Elections and explore volunteer or elected opportunities there.
Those of you from countries other than the United States can help as well. Let us know how your elections are conducted, or if there is any public research or policy that might be useful in increasing the body of knowledge on the usability of voting systems.
Finally, if you have expertise in areas that relate to voting and usability, let us know. Any standards commissions will need experts in areas such as usability testing interfaces for sensitive information, statistical issues in setting up a research study, accessibility, or creating guidelines for public access applications. We are looking for ways to connect the experts in our field with those who need their services.
To learn more, two good sources of information are the Congressional Research Service Report: RL30773: “Voting Technologies in the United States” nd the Library of Congress’ Thomas site which has the text of all pending bills in Congress online.
Information and links to research and other resources will be posted on the UPA web site. We urge you to check this frequently as the site will be updated when new information becomes available.
If this is an issue that interests you, we hope you will join in. This is just the first step. We need people and ideas for the direction this effort can take.
Printable PDF version of this letter
Letter to UPA and SIGCHI members (pdf 94Kb)