# Presentation: 214289

## Human Factors in Voting Systems

- John O’Hara
- IEEE Usability-Accessibility Working Group Chair
- HFES Voting System Task Force Chair
- Advisory Board Meeting
- Washington, DC
- October 16, 2002

## Topics

- Background
- Technical perspective
- The voting system
- Human factors engineering of voting systems
- Recent HFE standards activities for voting systems
- Beyond the current standards

## Background

- Voting technology is changing
- FEC revised its voting system standards to accommodate new technology
- FEC’s standards do not completely address human factors aspects of voting systems
- IEEE standard will strengthen the treatment of usability and accessibility
- FEC is sponsoring R&D to more completely address voting system human factors and usability

## Voting Technology Trends

- DRE and optical scan only technologies increasing in usage

- from IEEE Spectrum, 2000

## Technical Perspective

- Complex systems
- socio-technological systems that integrate hardware, software, and human resources to achieve a specific goal
- high-risk, high reliability
- often serve critical infrastructure missions, such as defense/security, transportation, health care, and energy

## Technical Perspective

- Performance is addressed through systems engineering and defense-in-depth design
- high design standards
- redundancy and diversity for system elements
- analysis of likely failures and design for recovery from them
- personnel handle normal and failure conditions through procedures and training

## How is Human Performance Addressed?

- Human performance is addressed through human factors engineering (HFE)
- Knowledge about human characteristics and capabilities is developed in many scientific disciplines
- physiology, psychology, and sociology/anthropology
- Human factors is:
**Research** specifically devoted to developing knowledge about the integration of human and machine systems
**Application** of that knowledge to the design of systems and equipment

## General Human Factors Activities

- Goals
- highly reliable system and human performance
- simplicity and standardization
- error tolerance (minimization, recognition, and recovery)
- Requirements analysis (tasks, users, etc.)
- Detailed design of equipment
- design characteristics and functions
- application of HFE guidelines
- Development of supporting infrastructure
- instructions, procedures, and training
- Test and evaluation
- Performance monitoring and feedback

## Is Systems Engineering an Appropriate Model for Voting Systems?

- Voting systems involve the integration and coordination of hardware, software, and human resources to achieve a critical mission
- The system elements all contribute to mission success although they are “loosely coupled” and distributed
- e.g., good ballot design software does not guarantee that good ballots will be designed by election officials using the software
- Human performance is vital to success of the mission

**Yes**

## The Voting System

- from *Draft* IEEE P-1581

- System elements are the infrastructure that accomplish the voting process

## The Voting System

- Election Management System
- administrative database
- ballot generation
- election programming
- ballot validation
- Control Subsystem
- equipment preparation
- pre-delivery testing
- tests at the polling place
- opening the polling place
- enabling a ballot
- error recovery
- closing the polling place
- polling place reports

- Vote Recording Subsystem
- precinct voting
- on-site absentee voting, early voting, and state-wide voting
- remote absentee voting
- Reporting Subsystem
- polling place reports
- precinct reports
- consolidated reports
- system audit log
- access to election data

## User Groups

## Lesson Learned from theAnalysis of Complex System Failure

- Overall performance is a function of the integrated system
- failure is often the result of the interaction of system elements
- difficult to focus on one component of the system
- Quick fix is often to throw technology at a problem
- the technology “halo” effect
- technology itself does not enhance or detract from human performance
- often old problems are solved, but new problems are created

## Broader and UnanticipatedEffects of Technology

- Changes in the roles and responsibilities of people working in the system
- Changes in the ways people accomplish their tasks
- Changes in the organizational structure
- e.g., need for an Information Technology Department to manage software configuration, etc.
- Digital technology evolves much more quickly than other technologies and organizations need to be able to respond

## Voting System Failure

- Since voting system elements are “loosely coupled,” standards aimed at one aspect of the system may not guarantee high-reliability of the whole system
- A comprehensive, hierarchical approach to voting system human factors is needed
- individual standards addressing system elements (and probably different user groups)
- an overall standard or guidance document that ties the individual elements together

## Supporting Human PerformanceThrough Human Factors

- Thorough analysis of human tasks
- for all significant user groups in the system
- address primary and secondary tasks
- Human-centered equipment design
- enable user to devote full attention to the task at hand
- to minimize secondary tasks (minimize attention shifts)
- make the equipment as transparent as possible
- Some key principles
- design reflects basic human cognitive and physiological capabilities
- positive guidance for appropriate task behavior
- high-degree of simplicity, standardization, and consistency
- error tolerance (minimize error through design and allow errors to be recognized and recovered from)

## Supporting Human Performancein the System

- Comprehensive test and evaluations
- “usability tests” to discover and address unanticipated issues
- verifications against human factors design standards
- validation that desired system performance criteria are met
- Well-designed procedures and instructions
- all user groups
- for all user tasks
- Training, familiarization, and help
- Defense-in-depth system design
- error tolerance across all system elements
- multiple barriers establish layers of defense against errors and failures

## VSS Usability Appendix

- Provided a systems engineering view of the voting system usability
- Guidance on key aspects of voting system human factors engineering was provided
- equipment design
- infrastructure support, such as familiarization and training
- Fairly high-level and narrow focus

## IEEE P-1583Usability-Accessibility Sections

- Builds on the VSS Usability Appendix
- Focus
- equipment design requirements
- voter interface
- standards verification for compliance

## Topics Addressed

- 6.5	Usability and Accessibility
- 6.5.1	General Principles
- 6.5.2	Overall Design and Layout of the Voting Location
- 6.5.3	Voter Identification and Authentication
- 6.5.4	Ballot and Information Presentation
- 6.5.5	Voter Input and Response
- 6.5.6	Navigation and Interaction with Ballots
- 6.5.7	Preventing and Minimizing Voter Errors
- 6.5.8	Help and System Failure
- 6.5.9	Voter Familiarization and Training
- 7.5	Usability and Accessibility Testing

## Further IEEE Standard Development

- Increase level of detail for voting equipment human-system interfaces
- touch screens
- cursor control devices and behavior
- Improve accessibility standards
- Develop standards verification criteria

## Beyond the Current Standards

- Expanded the scope of the standards to the whole voting system
- treatment of other technological approaches to voting equipment
- test and evaluation methods beyond verification
- ballot preparation and testing
- voter familiarization and training
- equipment setup
- General guidance on “how to”
- we have standards, e.g., for equipment design, but do not offer guidance to designers on how (methods) to accomplish good HFE
- Tie it all together
- standards and guidance should be presented as an integrated whole

## Beyond the Current Standards

**Testing**
**Handbook**

**Ballot**
**Design**
**Handbook**

**Equipment**
**Design**
**Handbook**

**Ballot**
**Design**
**Standard**

**Equipment**
**Standard**

**Voting**
**System**
**HFE**

**Testing**
**Standard**

**Voter**
**Training**
**Handbook**

**Voter**
**Training**
**Standard**