security insights & issues for poll workers
DESCRIPTION
Center for Civic Design workshop on September 26, 2014 to discuss what we learned in our project and share insights, experiences, and example materials with the election officials who made this work possible by hosting our researchersTRANSCRIPT
Security insights and issues for poll workers
Whitney QuesenberyDana ChisnellCenter for Civic Designcivicdesign.org
Project workshop September 26, 2014Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN
Opening remarks
Larry JacobsProfessor, Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies
Doug ChapinDirector, Program for Excellence in Election Administration
Jeremy EpsteinProgram Director, NSF
Who is here
Election officials from 12 jurisdictions
Researchers who contributed to the project (8 of 17)
Friends of the project
About the project What we wanted to learn
Background
First research to look at security from point of view of poll workers interacting with systems
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
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
Was not exactly what we found!
Highlights from the research
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
Nobody is doing it flawlessly
Even great jurisdictions see imperfect completeness, accuracy, or clarity
Empowered poll workers cope well, generally
Security vulnerabilities are distributed
People Processes Paper Procedures and training
Reconciling and closing
"Controlled chaos" Team work helped
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
4 ownership attitudesAttitude Focus of responsibility
I’m responsible for running the polling place
Safety and comfort of voters, and maintaining an orderly polling place.
I have to follow procedures
Completing all procedures correctly, as a way of running the polling place well.
I have to account for paperwork
Forms and reports as a double-check on equipment tallies and to ensure all votes are accounted for.
I’m responsible for “my election”
The overall results of the election, broadly incorporating the polling place, procedures, and tallies.
Big insightsSecurity and the Goldilocks Problem
Security in elections
The processes, procedures, tools, and people put in place to ensure that elections run freely, fairly, and efficiently.
Stress points: particular challenges to security on Election Day
Setup and opening Delivering materials to the
polling place How much direction poll workers
do or don’t get Inventorying Coping with early start
Stress points: particular challenges to security on Election Day
During the day Managing traffic flow Documenting and
troubleshooting incidents
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
Stress points
Reconciling was, by far, the biggest and most persistent problem
Stress points
Elections appear to be optimized for opening the polls
Stress points: particular challenges to security on Election Day
Delivering results Checking in with the election
office from the polling place Returning materials
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?
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
Helping poll workers do the best possible job
Use scenarios and role-playing to practice anticipating problems
Trust them and leave them alone
Use appropriate constraints such as checklists
Give responsibility Have strong expectations and
equivalent consequences for not meeting them
Show-and-tell progressionSharing polling place materials and training manuals
GuidelinesIf jurisdictions could do just a few things, what should they do?
Thank you.
With support from the National Science FoundationEAGER grant CNS-1301887
And special help from Doug Chapin, UMNLea Chittenden, UMNLaura Pointon, CCD
Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent
Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent
Get in touch!
Whitney [email protected]@whitneyq
Dana [email protected]@danachis
civicdesign.org@civicdesign