Voters' Evaluations of Electronic Voting Systems Results From a Usability Field Study

Electronic voting systems were developed, in part, to make voting easier and to boost voters' confidence in the election process. Using three new approaches to studying electronic voting systems—focusing on a large-scale field study of the usability of a representative set of systems—we demonst...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican politics research Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 580 - 611
Main Authors Herrnson, Paul S., Niemi, Richard G., Hanmer, Michael J., Francia, Peter L., Bederson, Benjamin B., Conrad, Frederick G., Traugott, Michael W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2008
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Digital divide
Elections
Electoral reform
Electronic voting
Evaluation
Field work
Internet
Online voting
Political participation
Public Opinion
Reform
Technological change
Technology
U.S.A
Voter behavior
Voters
Voting
Voting behaviour
Voting machines
voting machines
usability
public opinion
election reform
voting technology
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Summary:Electronic voting systems were developed, in part, to make voting easier and to boost voters' confidence in the election process. Using three new approaches to studying electronic voting systems—focusing on a large-scale field study of the usability of a representative set of systems—we demonstrate that voters view these systems favorably but that design differences have a substantial impact on voters' satisfaction with the voting process and on the need to request help. Factors associated with the digital divide played only a small role with respect to overall satisfaction but they were strongly associated with feeling the need for help. Results suggest numerous possible improvements in electronic voting systems as well as the need for continued analysis that assesses specific characteristics of both optical scan and direct recording electronic systems.
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ISSN:1532-673X
1552-3373
DOI:10.1177/1532673X08316667