I can't seem to find any screenshots of (preferably good) electronic voting systems. I mean the kind that's used in elections. Any ideas where I can find one?
2 Answers
If you want to read research on and analysis of the design of user interfaces for voting systems, I recommend reading the work of Mike Byrne (at Rice), Whitney Quesenbery, Dana Chisnell, Ben Bederson (U Maryland), Juan Gilbert.
Also, you can take a look at Votebox, Pvote, and Prime III, which are research voting systems that you can run and take a screenshot of.
I can also highly recommend the Usability Professionals' Association Voting and Usability Project. They've done some great work on usability of voting systems. Between the above resources, you should be able to find a great deal of information on UIs for voting machines.
If you really just want some screenshots, googling the name of the voting machine should find you screenshots. Some popular electronic voting machines include Diebold AV-TS, Diebold AV-TSX, Sequoia AVC Advantage, Sequoia AVC Edge, Hart-Intercivic eSlate, ES&S iVotronic. Verified Voting has a guide to the most widely used electronic voting machines that may be helpful.
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Thanks for the wonderful links and info! Very much appreciated :-) Oct 23, 2012 at 9:22
Please note that in the context of elections, all electronic voting solutions have one important drawback: they obscure the process that by the very nature of it should be as transparent as possible. It becomes impossible to follow your individual vote and see that it is handled correctly, while still keeping that vote anonymous. At least, not without very complicated technical solutions. That does not really add transparency, as the point of the transparency is that the average voter can understand and verify the process.
No user interface, no matter how sophisticated, will solve this basic problem.
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I would rephrase that as 'all deployed electronic voting solutions'. There are some excellent solutions that have been offered that meet all the needs of a secure, verifiable, and anonymous voting system. 'Not in use' is not the same as 'doesn't exist'. Oct 23, 2012 at 13:00
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If you can point me to one that is also understandable by a lay person, I'll make the edit. So far, the ones I've seen rely on complicated cryptographic schemes, and to me, that defeats the purpose.– AndréOct 23, 2012 at 13:49
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This paper covers a voting method that is essentially impervious to malicious manipulation, even if the software or the results afterward have been tampered with. While why it works is not obvious, the fact that it does without any trust needed in any portion of the voting system can be proven. Bad software or malicious intent will be found, provably. Oct 23, 2012 at 17:57
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I'd like to note that the above method allows users to be sure their vote was counted (and to prove they voted), without the possibility of voter coercion. The receipt cannot provide who they voted for without the other half. Oct 23, 2012 at 19:59