Poor experiences of e-voting

The regional US press continues to report on lack of US voter confidence in current of e-voting technology.

According to the Miami Herald, "25 percent of likely voters polled in Broward [county] said they were ''not confident at all'' that the electronic system would accurately tally their vote", while the Herald commissioned telephone survey also found that "more than half [the voters who had used the machines] said it was important to have a paper record of their vote -- something that does not exist at present".

The Herald says, "many people are suspicious and more are confused about how the machines work and how they tally votes", reflecting the view of one Florida lawyer: "''We have gone from a totally transparent process to a totally opaque one'".

Meanwhile over at the Indianapolis Star, there's a report that in one county that "computer readings of stored voting machine data showed far more votes than registered voters. 'It was like 144,000 votes cast,' said County Clerk Lisa Garofolo, whose corrected accounting showed just 5,352 ballots from a pool of fewer than 19,000 registered voters." They are still trying to figure out where the software problem lies.

While system vendors continue to tout their equipment as perfectly designed and infallible, it seems to me that lowering confidence in e-voting systems following these kinds of experiences will force vendors to address issues they have preferred to brush under the carpet until now. It's all about the user - in this case, the voter - experience.