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 researchers
1. Security insights
and issues
for poll workers
Whitney Quesenbery
Dana Chisnell
Center for Civic Design
civicdesign.org
Project workshop September 26, 2014
Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UMN
2. Opening remarks
Larry Jacobs
Professor, Walter F. and Joan
Mondale Chair for Political Studies
Doug Chapin
Director, Program for Excellence in
Election Administration
Jeremy Epstein
Program Director, NSF
3. Who is here
Election officials from 12 jurisdictions
Researchers who contributed to the
project (8 of 17)
Friends of the project
5. Background
First research to look at security from
point of view of poll workers interacting
with systems
6. 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
7. 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!
9. 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
10. Nobody is doing it flawlessly
Even great jurisdictions see
imperfect completeness, accuracy,
or clarity
Empowered poll workers cope well,
generally
13. 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
14. 4 ownership attitudes
Attitude 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.
16. Security in elections
The processes, procedures,
tools, and people put in place to
ensure that elections run freely,
fairly, and efficiently.
17. 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
18. Stress points: particular challenges to
security on Election Day
During the day
Managing traffic flow
Documenting and troubleshooting
incidents
19. 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
22. Stress points: particular challenges to
security on Election Day
Delivering results
Checking in with the election office
from the polling place
Returning materials
23. The Goldilocks Problem
Too hard: 200-400 pages of
documentation and forms
What is just right?
Too soft: 100-page manual and a
phone number
24. 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
25. 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
33. Get in touch!
Whitney Quesenbery
whitneyq@civicdesign.org
@whitneyq
Dana Chisnell
dana@civicdesign.org
@danachis
civicdesign.org
@civicdesign
Editor's Notes
12:10-ish for Larry
1pm for Doug and Jeremy
1:15
Go around the room to do introductions now
1:30
Whitney starts
This is the first research we know of that focused on the human aspect of the voting system rather than purely on the technology and how it could be hacked.
4 presidential elections (2012)
1 primary
2 consolidated municipal
12 municipal
1:45 Dana takes over here
Security goes beyond chain of custody
This transitions us to the progressions / idea markets
2:!5 – 4pm
Dana introduces the progressions and gets everyone started
4:!5 – 5pm
Whitney facilitates this discussion
5:20 – 5:30
And now a word from our sponsor
DC
Each guide covers a different topic.
If you would like more sets, let us know. We’ll send them to you for free, thanks to the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation.
Or, you can download PDFs from civicdesigning.org/fieldguides