Sunday, November 07, 2004
Blaming the voters...again
Various publications have reported on US voting machines that failed to start on election morning, or those that were not plugged in (and whose batteries died as the day wore on).
More interesting perhaps was the story in Wired relating to calibration and usability problems.
For example, the machines in Texas from Hart InterCivic: Michelle Shafer, spokeswoman for Hart InterCivic, said the problem that occurred in Texas with her company's machines were caused by voters rather than by the machines. The Hart machines are not touch-screen machines but instead use a wheel that voters turn to make their selections. Shafer said after choosing the straight-party option, many voters turned the wheel to manually go through the races and click their choices individually to emphasize them, not realizing that in doing so they de-selected their choices. Shafer said they probably then mistakenly moved the wheel to select a candidate from another party.
"It's not a machine issue," Shafer said. "It's voters not properly following the instructions." Shafer, if - in your own words - "many voters" did something you didn't expect and cater for in your machine design, then you haven't done your user research. Voters don't have time to learn, or to 'read the manual', especially with long queues of voters at many polling stations. Voting equipment needs to be 'walk up and use'.
You're right, it's not a machine issue, but it's not a voter issue either: it's a vendor issue. A vendor that fails to do its user research will produce equipment that many people will have problems with. David Beirne, spokesman for Harris County [in Texas], where some of the problems occurred, said voters had made the same mistake two years ago when political parties instructed voters to go back through the ballot and emphasize their choices.
"I think that often times the voter information passed out to voters is incorrect," he said. "We encourage voters to take their time and ask questions and watch the videotape demonstration that's provided." Well, if voters made the same "mistake" two years ago, and nothing has been done to improve how the machines function, then it's also an issue of county or state responsibility. If the county knew there was a problem, and took no action so that the same thing occurred again...
And no, videos won't be the answer, unless people can see them at a time/place that makes sense. A video is provided, but he doesn't say where/when people can see it. When do people get to see the videos? At home? While they're standing outside in a long queue, waiting to vote? I suspect not.
11:41 AM|
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