Latest Research from the VTP

THE NEW MEXICO 2006 POST ELECTION AUDIT REPORT

Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 11:36
in: 
Featured Content
Author(s): 
R. Michael Alvarez
Caltech
Thad E. Hall
Journal: 
Collaboration with The University of New Mexico, Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, University of Utah
pp: 
Link to Article: 
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
During the 2007 legislative session, the New Mexico Legislature passed a bill and Governor Richardson signed it into law, which provides for random voting system audits after every statewide general election (see §1-14-13.1, NMSA). Specifically, the law provides that county clerks are to compare the total votes tallied in the general election for the office of president or governor from a random selection of 2% of the voting systems used during the election throughout the state to a hand count of the ballots cast on that system. A voting system is

The New Mexico Election Administration Report: The 2006 November General Election

Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 14:36
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
R. Michael Alvarez
Lonna Rae Atkeson
Thad E. Hall
The New Mexico Election Administration Report on the 2006 November General Election is the product of three independent research projects focused on New Mexico’s election administration efforts in the 2006 election. New Mexico has recently implemented a number of significant election reforms intended to create fair, accurate and voter-verifiable election administration systems.

Russian Elections: An Oxymoron of Democracy

Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 17:18
Working Paper No.: 
63
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
Misha Myagkov
Peter Ordeshook
Considerable controversy swirls around the extent to which Russia’s elections have been falsified. We argue here on the basis of an assessment of aberrant distributions of turnout in official election returns for each or Russia’s national elections beginning in 1995, that falsifications in the form of stuffed ballot boxes and artificially augmented election counts, whose significance was first apparent in its ethnic republics, has now spread to and metastasized within both rural and urban oblast districts.

On Auditing Elections When Precincts Have Different Sizes

Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 16:12
Working Paper No.: 
55
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
Ronald L. Rivest
We address the problem of auditing an election when precincts may have different sizes, and suggest methods for picking a sample of precincts to audit that takes precinct size into account. one method yields optimal auditing strategies together with an exact measure of its effectiveness (probability of detecting corruption of a given size).

On Estimating the Size and Confidence of a Statistical Audit

Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 16:09
Working Paper No.: 
54
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
Javed A. Aslam
Ronald L. Rivest
We consider the problem of statistical sampling for auditing elections, and we develop a remarkably simple and easily-calculated upper bound for the sample size necessary for determining with probability at least c whether a given set of n objects contains b or more “bad” objects. While the size of the optimal sample drawn without replacement can be determined with a computer program, our goal is to derive a highly accurate and simple formula that can be used by election officials equipped with only a simple calculator.

Measuring the Improvement (Or Lack of Improvement) In Voting Since 2000 in the U.S.

Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 15:58
Working Paper No.: 
36
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
Charles Stewart III
This paper summarizes what systematic evidence exists about the performance of the American voting process in 2004 and proposes a comprehensive system of performance measures that would allow citizens and officials to assess the quality of the voting system in the U.S.

Statement on Verifying the Vote and Auditing Elections

Submitted by admin on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 14:20
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
Voting Technology Project
No abstract available.

Processes Can Improve Electronic Voting: A Case Study of An Election

Submitted by admin on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 14:08
Working Paper No.: 
19
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
Ted Selker
Across the United States, I have personally watched hundreds of precincts vote since 2001. Most recently, I traveled to Reno/Sparks, Nevada to observe the rollout of the Sequoia Direct record electronic voting systems with verifiable paper trail printers on September 7, 2004. This experience was also enriched by the members of the Secretary of State of California’s poll-watching effort, who invited me to join them to watch the election progress at eleven different polling places, which together represent almost forty different precincts.

A Day of Poll Watching, Reno and Sparks, Nevada

Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 14:34
Author(s): 
Ted Selker
Journal: 
User Experience Magazine
pp: 
Link to Article: 
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Across the United States, I have personally watched hundreds of precincts vote since 2001. Most recently, I traveled to Reno/Sparks, Nevada to observe the rollout of the Sequoia Direct record electronic voting systems with verifiable paper trail printers on September 7, 2004. This experience was also enriched by the members of the Secretary of State of California’s poll-watching effort, who invited me to join them to watch the election progress at eleven different polling places, which together represent almost forty different precincts.

VOTER CONFIDENCE IN CONTEXT AND THE EFFECT OF WINNING

Submitted by admin on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 12:10
Working Paper No.: 
68
Date Published: 
11/30/2008
Author(s): 
R. Michael Alvarez
Caltech
Thad E. Hall
A number of recent studies examine how confident voters are that their ballots are counted as intended in U.S. federal elections from 2000 to 2004. One consistent finding of these studies is that, relative to Democrats, Republican voters tend to be more confident that their ballots are counted correctly. However, it is also the case that in terms of the national outcomes of the 2000 and 2004 elections, Republicans were victorious. Additionally, research suggests that in the 2004 election voters who cast a paper ballot are more confident relative to those who vote using

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