Successfully reported this slideshow.
We use your LinkedIn profile and activity data to personalize ads and to show you more relevant ads. You can change your ad preferences anytime.

Whose election is it, anyway?

458 views

Published on

Insights and findings from Center for Civic Design research about attitudes and abilities of election workers -- and how to train and support them.

Published in: Government & Nonprofit
  • Login to see the comments

  • Be the first to like this

Whose election is it, anyway?

  1. 1. Whose election is it, anyway? Dana Chisnell Center for Civic Design
  2. 2. A day in the life of a poll worker
  3. 3. A day in the life of a poll worker This is ALSO 
 a day in the 
 life of a
 poll worker.
  4. 4. 4 ownership attitudes ▪ I’m responsible for running the polling place ▪ I have to follow procedures ▪ I have to get the paperwork right ▪ I’m responsible for my election
  5. 5. Poll worker attitudinal factors ▪ Personal history ▪ Election culture ▪ Voting equipment ▪ Who manages the team ▪ Local policies ▪ Leadership of clerk or election director ▪ Changes in laws
  6. 6. About the project What we wanted to learn
  7. 7. Background First research to look at security from point of view of poll workers interacting with systems
  8. 8. With support from the National Science Foundation EAGER grant CNS-1301887
  9. 9. Coverage ▪ 19 elections in 12 states ▪ November 2012 – November 2013 ▪ 17 researchers ▪ Purposeful but convenient sample ▪ Types of elections ▪ Range of systems ▪ Geographical range ▪ Range of sizes of jurisdiction ▪ Different approaches to administration and process
  10. 10. What we expected ▪ Security would be a distinct part of procedures & training ▪ Issues would occur in the interaction with voting systems ▪ Issues caused by mistakes, not purposeful attacks
  11. 11. Highlights from the research
  12. 12. Security is baked in ▪ Poll workers have and use procedures designed for security ▪ Procedures are designed to support trust in elections ▪ Security is not treated separately
  13. 13. Security vulnerabilities are distributed ▪ People ▪ Processes ▪ Paper ▪ Procedures and training
  14. 14. Nobody is doing it flawlessly ▪ Even great jurisdictions see imperfect completeness, accuracy, or clarity ▪ Empowered poll workers cope well, generally
  15. 15. Stress points Elections seem to be optimized 
 for opening the polls 1.
  16. 16. Stress points: particular challenges to security on Election Day Closing & shutdown ▪ Inventorying & packing up ▪ Recording counts ▪ Organizing, sorting ▪ Managing assignments and tasks ▪ Coping with exhaustion + urgency
  17. 17. Stress points Reconciling was, by far, the biggest and most persistent problem 2.
  18. 18. Big insights Security and 
 the Goldilocks Problem
  19. 19. Everything runs on documentation • Manuals • Checklists • Job aids • Forms
  20. 20. The Goldilocks Problem Too hard: 200-400 pages of documentation and forms Too soft: 100-page manual and a phone number What is just right?
  21. 21. Enough to document. And no more.
  22. 22. Best practices ▪ short checklists for setting up and shutting down 
 ▪ working in pairs while setting up and shutting down systems 
 ▪ rotating through different stations through the day 
 ▪ conducting mini-reconciliations throughout the day 
 ▪ greeters-as-gatekeepers
  23. 23. Best practice Empower through training and trust ▪ Teams had ways to resolve disputes ▪ Leads took strong responsibility ▪ Forms and checklists helped catch mistakes before they became big problems
  24. 24. Helping poll workers do the best possible job ▪ Use scenarios and role-playing to practice anticipating problems ▪ Use appropriate constraints such as checklists ▪ Give clear guiding principles ▪ Have strong expectations and equivalent consequences for not meeting them
  25. 25. Helping poll workers do the best possible job ▪ Train them. ▪ Test them. ▪ Trust them.
  26. 26. Thank you.
  27. 27. Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent
  28. 28. Get in touch!
 
 Dana Chisnell
 dana@civicdesign.org
 @danachis
 
 civicdesign.org
 @civicdesign


×