AMERICANS INDICATE GENERAL TRUST IN COMPUTERIZED VOTING SYSTEMS’ ACCURACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
16 February 2004

Contact: Glenn Newkirk.
Phone: 919-838-8570

A substantial majority of Americans expresses trust in computerized voting systems’ ability to produce confidential and accurate results. This finding came in a nationwide opinion survey conducted for InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. by Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton, New Jersey.

Glenn Newkirk, InfoSENTRY’s President said, “The results of the survey show that a majority of adult Americans expressed trust in the two kinds of voting technology that are replacing punch cards and other voting technologies across the country.”

Newkirk released survey results indicating that a majority of Americans trust the so-called computerized “touch screen” voting devices and systems that use computer scanners to read voters’ marks on paper ballots.

When asked to rate four ways of voting in terms of how much they trust each voting method to produce confidential and accurate election results, where 1 means very low trust and 5 means very high trust, survey respondents provided the following results.”

	Percent having Trust (4 or 5) In the Voting echnology’s Security	Mean Summary of Responses
Going to a polling place and making your choices directly on a computer screen and having the computer count the results.	68%	3.8
Going to a polling place, marking your choices on a paper ballot, and having your ballot counted by a computer scanner.	59%	3.6
Getting your ballot in the mail, marking your choices on the paper ballot, and mailing your ballot back to be counted by a computer scanner.	31%	2.8
Using a computer at your home, office, or some other place of your choice to cast your ballot over the Internet.	32%	2.7

“Even with the extraordinary media attention given to critics of computerized voting systems, these results show that a majority of the public has general confidence in both methods of voting that rely on computers,” Newkirk observed. In one method, the so-called Direct Record Electronic (DRE) or “touch screen” systems, voters make an indication on a computer device in the polling place and the computer tallies the results without paper ballots. In the “optical scan” method, voters mark their choices on a paper ballot that is read by a computer scanner in the polling place.

Newkirk commented, “These numbers show that focusing the elections technology debate on a so-called voter verifiable paper audit trail for the electronic voting machines misses some key points of what will increase public trust in elections. Optical scan systems already have a built-in paper trail, but public trust in that technology is slightly below trust levels for the all-electronic voting systems. Among African-American respondents, the difference is even greater. While 67% of adult African Americans nationwide trust the accuracy and confidentiality of DRE systems, only 47% express trust in the precinct-based optical scan systems. If you argue that a paper trail is needed to increase trust in elections, it is hard to reconcile the expense of adding a paper trail to all-electronic systems because the public generally does not trust paper-based systems’ accuracy and confidentiality as much as it trusts the all-electronic systems.”

Newkirk suggested “Election officials face the challenge of increasing the level of trust in any election technology they choose. These numbers all need to be higher in order to give Americans the assurance they deserve that their votes will be counted accurately and with complete confidence. Election officials will need to concentrate on very comprehensive views of voter registration system integrity and election systems security to increase trust in the entire election process.”

Newkirk pointed out that one striking result is the apparent preference for voting in the polling place by a majority of Americans. “In the four methods of voting we asked the public to rate, they gave clear preference to the two methods being used inside polling places over the two methods that allow voting outside the polling place.”

Newkirk continued, “The survey’s respondents rated trust in polling place-based optical scan technology over the “Vote By Mail” approach that is so popular in Western states. The option to get the ballot in the mail, mailing it in, and having it read by optical scanners gets much higher support in the West. There, the respondents expressed a much stronger expression of confidence in Vote By Mail’s ability to deliver confidential and accurate results. Of course, it is in Oregon, Washington, and California where so many more voters have had direct experience with Vote By Mail. Similar surveys in the United Kingdom, where they are experimenting with ‘All Postal Voting’, show that voters who have tried it like it and trust it.”

Newkirk concluded by saying “Confidentiality and accuracy are key components of voting technology security. Regardless of critics’ concerns about computerized voting technology, a majority of Americans trusts that technology to produce accurate and confidential election results. We intend to track this trust as the new technology rolls out across the country.”

This report presents the findings of a telephone survey conducted among a national probability sample of 1026 adults comprising 512 men and 514 women 18 years of age and older, living in private households in the continental United States. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Interviewing for this Opinion Research Center CARAVAN® Survey was completed during the period February 6 - 9, 2004. Opinion Research Center is one of the best known and most established opinion research organizations in the United States.

InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. is an independent information technology services firm based in Raleigh, NC. The firm conducts project assessments, quality assurance reviews, information systems security and business continuity projects, and system analyses for clients throughout the United States and Europe. It has directed information systems research and project management engagements for Federal, state, and local elections offices since 1994. InfoSENTRY® has no financial relationships or business partnerships with hardware, software, or voting systems firms, allowing it a unique independent perspective to evaluate and manage information technology projects. InfoSENTRY® does not endorse any individual vendor’s specific information technology, voter registration system, or voting system.

InfoSENTRY will release a white paper with more detailed information on the survey on its website. on March 1. Persons interested in receiving the white paper by e-mail should send their request and e-mail delivery address.

Download the full White Paper in PDF format.
Download the full White Paper in HTML format.

The survey questions, response set, and the contents of this news release are Copyright 2004, by InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. All rights reserved. The InfoSENTRY logo and InfoSENTRY® are registered trademarks of InfoSENTRY Services, Inc.

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