UPA voting press release

The Usability Professionals' Association press release on the California recall is now available online.

The California recall was delayed by the US Court of Appeals this week, owing to widespread reliance across the state on punch card voting technology, considered to suffer from usability issues since the 2000 Presidentail election. California, along with many other states, was in the middle of switching from punch card systems to newer-style voting machines, when the recall happened. The case seemed likely to go to the Supreme Court, but another development means the Appeals decision is to be re-examined.

There are many issues in the California recall here related to the user experience. First, there has been much confusion about what the recall is, and what is 'allowed' (for example, can you vote against the recall, and then in favour of another candidate?). Second there were 135 candidates: how can so many candidates be treated equitably when citizens cast their votes? And third, the voting technology - both old and new - was really not proven to be trustworthy (usability, accessibility, security...). There are probably others too.

The UPA press release states, "The association also called for a full evaluation of all US voting systems", something that applies equally to all other jurisdictions: many newer voting systems being sold around the world are from US vendors.