The Evaluation of Voting Technology

Abstract

The voting technologies in common use today each have distinct strengths and weaknesses. These technologies cannot be evaluated in isolation, but must be evaluated as parts of a larger social and legal system, as demonstrated by a discussion of the problems with the voting technologies in wide use today, the Australian ballot, including punched card and optical mark-sense ballots, and direct recording voting machines, including mechanical lever machines. Alternate models for canvassing and remote voting further complicate the evaluation.