Presentation by Merle King that shows the convergence of different components of the election administration process.

1. Election Systems: Management, Testing
and Deployment in an Era of Rising
Expectations for e-Government Solutions
Merle S. King
January 8, 2012
Jacksonville, FL
© 2011

2. Disclaimer(s)
• Employed by Kennesaw State University
• Do not represent State of Georgia or the Office
of the Secretary of State of Georgia
• Do not represent the EAC
• 100% of the funding for the Center for Election
Systems is derived from a contract with Georgia
SOS
•Opinions expressed are my own

3. Rising Expectations
Mandates for local and state governments:
•Expand services
•Improve services – quality and
accessibility
•Reduce costs
•Increase transparency and
accountability
…. do more, with less – a lot less.

4. Rising Expectations
“…whether you voted for the very first
time or waited in line for a very long time -
- by the way, we have to fix that…”
- President Barack Obama, Acceptance Speech, November 7, 2012.

5. Election Official as IT Manager
• Attitude
• Knowledge
• Skill
What are the core competencies of election
officials?

6. Election Official as IT Manager
• Attitudes
– IT is an investment
– IT goals must be congruent with organization goals
– IT is pervasive and creates dependencies
– IT is not a capital asset; it‟s “supplies”
– Vendor partnerships necessary; vendor management
mandatory
– IT leadership is a meritocracy
– Youth will be served

7. Election Official as IT Manager
• Knowledge
– Must understand core technologies
– Must understand system dependencies
– Must be able to plan IT
– Must understand IT audit principles
• Skills
– Consider ROI of personal skills
– Cultivate, delegate, sub contract

8. Innovation and Replacement
• What are some of the features that states and
localities are looking for in a “next generation”
voting system?
– backward/forward compatibility
– true cost of ownership
– horizontal & vertical integration
– long service life
– adaptive
– multi-mode

9. Innovation and Replacement
• How could the next generation of equipment
make voting – and election administration –
more efficient?
– data collection and reporting
– non-invasive security diagnostics
– appropriate vendor roles
– auditability

10. Election Systems vs. Voting Systems
A major difference…what and how we test.
“People do what we inspect, not what we expect”,
is a common rule of management. It also
applies to systems.

11. Because we can…
Right now, we inspect voting systems
• Federal Testing: EAC VVSG 2005
• State Certification Testing
• Acceptance Testing
• Logic and Accuracy Testing
• Audits
…. so why is this a potential problem?

12. Emerging Challenge
In the future, we may not be able to
separate the consequence of poorly
performing election systems from well
performing voting systems.

13. Systems
• A system is a collection of components
(including subsystems) that transform
inputs into outputs.
• Systems utilize feedback loops to monitor
states and adjust performance
• Systems maintain interfaces with other
systems

14. System Components
• Hardware
• Software
• Data
• People
• Procedures

15. Voting Systems
• Vote Capture
• Vote Tabulation

16. Election Systems
Systems used to
collect, store, compute, analyze, report, a
nd disseminate data related to the election
process. Includes voter registration, digital
pollbooks, ballot delivery and
retrieval, election night reporting, voting
systems, social media systems, etc.

17. Acceptance and Use of Technology
• Four key aspects predict adoption and usage of
technologies:
– Performance expectancy
– Effort expectancy
– Social influence
– Facilitating conditions
• Mediators include:
– Gender, age, experience, and voluntariness
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology - Venkatesh

18. eGovernment Systems
„eGovernment' - the utilization of IT, ICTs,
and other web-based telecommunication
technologies to improve and/or enhance
the efficiency and effectiveness of service
delivery in the public sector.
(Jeong, 2007)

19. eGovernment and eGovernance
• Focus:
– The use of Information and communication
technologies, including the Internet, as a tool to
achieve better government.
– The use of information and communication
technologies in all facets of the operations of a
government organization.
– The continuous optimization of service
delivery, constituency participation and
governance by transforming internal and external
relationships through technology, the Internet and
new media. *
• eGovernance is the use of ICTs to achieve better
governance – including elections
* Koh

20. eGovernment Examples
•Campground Reservations •WIC Services Eligibility Checker
•Citizen Alert System •Business/Professional Services
•Dog Licenses
•Professional License Renewals
•Driver‟s License Renewal
•Find Elected Officials •Public Criminal Record Search
•Hunting and Fishing Licenses •Title and Registration Records
•Local Government Information Search
•Sex Offender Registry Search •Aircraft Registration renewal
•Voter Information Look up •UOCAVA Ballot Request
•Services payment •Fine payments
•Mapping and GIS
•Judicial Courts Mediator Search
•Water Test Kit Ordering

21. Uniform Voting System
• Uniformity of voting systems is multi-
dimensional. Within the jurisdiction there may
be uniformity in
– Technologies
– Vendor (single-vendor)
– Procedures
– Administrative organization
• Uniformity enhances standards; standards are
the metrics of quality enhancement

22. Uniform Voting System
• A voting system that consists of a defined set of
vote-capture and vote-tabulation
devices, consistent procedures applied across
all jurisdictions, defined roles for participants in
the administration of elections and standard and
consistent formats for election data and the
management of that data
• Uniformity is already imposed by statute or rule
on many aspects of voting and election systems
• Uniformity is a matter of degree

23. Uniform Voting System
• There are no single-vendor systems
• Every voting system is a collection of
proprietary, COTS and integrated sub systems
which have multiple vendors (consider the
supply chain for consumables)
• At best, a “single vendor” is an integrator
• Vendor dependency: the vendor is a portal to the
jurisdiction‟s voting and election systems

24. Uniform or Unified?
Are jurisdictions moving toward uniformity or
unification of election systems?

25. Emerging Systems
•Online VR Systems
•Online VR Application
Systems
Voter
Registration •VR Reporting Systems
Systems •Integration with GIS

26. Emerging Systems
•Statewide rollup
•County/Township/
Election
Precinct level reporting
Reporting •Post election analysis
Systems
•Data harvesting
potential
•Integration with GIS

27. Emerging Systems
•Vote-by-mail
•UOCAVA Ballot
Delivery Systems Distributed
•Internet Voting Voting
Technologies
•Social Media

28. Emerging Systems
•Ballot on Demand
•Electronic Pollbooks
•Voter ID initiatives
•Accessibility Enhancements Operations
Enhancement
•Security Enhancements
•Training & Outreach

29. Mature Systems
•VVSG standard exists
•Testing protocols are established and vetted
•Local focus with some State level control
•Legacy issues
•Oldest technologies; mature market
Voting System
Vote Capture/Vote Tabulation

30. System Convergence
Voter Election Distributed
Operations
Registration Reporting Voting
Enhancement
Systems Systems Technologies
Voting System
Vote Capture/Vote Tabulation

31. Unified Election System
Voter Election Distributed
Operations
Registration Reporting Voting
Enhancement
Systems Systems Technologies
Voting System
Vote Capture/Vote Tabulation

32. Implications for testing
Emerging election systems provide inputs to, and
utilize outputs of the voting system – primarily
through human interface
The performance of these systems impact the
operational accuracy and reliability of the voting
system – and vice versa
Our testing strategies lack symmetry – we may be
over-testing voting systems and under-testing
election systems

33. Challenges for Testing
• Election systems lack standards for conformance testing.
Testing may be more qualitative than quantitative
• Systems are frequently licensed, not sold to jurisdictions.
Vendor involved in testing, deployment and use.
• Systems are not mature – frequent upgrades/updates.
• Implications of use (and misuse) not well understood by
user community or public
• Functional testing done by vendor

34. Product Review & Integrated Testing
• As election systems merge, the relationship
between the voting system and deployed
election systems must be
understood, documented and evaluated
• Dependencies should be included into voting
system testing and into the testing of the election
system
• In addition to functional tests – a product review

35. Questions?
Merle King
mking@kennesaw.edu