NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release                                                                Contact: Glenn Newkirk

04 February 2006                                                                               Phone: 919.838.8570

                                                                                                            glenn_newkirk@infosentry.com

 

Americans Rate Trust in Computerized Systems
Highest Among Current Voting Technologies

 

Americans have higher trust in the confidentiality and accuracy of computerized voting systems, commonly known as Direct Record Electronic (DRE) and “touchscreen” systems, than in other voting technologies being widely considered as states and counties rush to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. National opinion survey results released today by InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. during a meeting of state election officials in Washington, DC indicated that since the passage of HAVA, computerized voting systems have recaptured a slight trust lead over scanned paper ballots being considered for use in many polling places across the USA.

 

InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. contracted Opinion Research Corporation, a leading national opinion research company, to ask a random sample of 1004 US respondents who are 18 years old and over the following question in its CARAVAN® surveys in January of the last three years:

“Now I am going to read to you some methods people use to vote in elections for public officials and ballot issues throughout the United States.  As I read each one, please tell me on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means very low trust and 5 means very high trust, how much you trust each voting method to produce confidential and accurate election results.  [READ AND ROTATE STATEMENTS]

 

1.      Going to a polling place and making your choices directly on a computer screen and having the computer count the results

2.      Going to a polling place, marking your choices on a paper ballot, and having your ballot counted by a computer scanner

3.      Getting your ballot in the mail, marking your choices on the paper ballot, and mailing your ballot back to be counted by a computer scanner

4.      Using a computer at your home, office, or some other place of your choice to cast your ballot over the Internet”

 

The following table shows the “positive trust scores” for the four types of voting systems in each of InfoSENTRY’s last three national opinion surveys. InfoSENTRY calculated these positive trust scores by adding the results of respondents who selected a “4” or “5” on the five-point scale.

 

 

2004 Positive

2005 Positive

2006 Positive

      

Trust Score

Trust Score

Trust Score

DREs

68%

62%

68%

Polling Place Optical Scan

59%

64%

61%

Vote-by-Mail

31%

35%

38%

Internet Voting

32%

29%

30%

 

Glenn Newkirk, InfoSENTRY’s President and director of InfoSENTRY’s national polling project, commented, “The trust scores for the four types of voting technology have remained generally constant over the three years in which we have conducted the surveys. While the Positive Trust Scores of DREs and polling place optical scan systems were tied statistically in our 2005 survey, DREs regained a statistically significant lead in 2005. This is a fascinating trend, given the full, head-on assault by voting critics and the media on computerized voting in many states and counties since the passage of HAVA. Trust in the so-called “touchscreen” systems’ confidentiality and accuracy is far higher than the critics of this technology would have us believe, and this level of trust is without any added features like paper records being printed by the computers. Most election officials certainly would prefer to see higher trust scores in all forms of voting. It will be up to them to see that the systems they implement, regardless of the technology, are worthy of the trust given to the systems. It will also be up to voting system vendors to improve the security and reliability of their hardware and software to meet the highest information system industry standards.”

Approximately one-half the states have required that newly purchased computerized voting systems must be equipped with controversial printer technology to produce paper copies of ballots that voters can choose to inspect when they vote. Voting system critics insist that voters will have confidence in computerized voting systems only if they produce paper copies of ballots. However, the costly ballot printer add-ons have been used only in a very few elections since their introduction.

Newkirk continued his analysis by stating, “When you subtract the negative trust scores from the positive trust scores to calculate a “Net Trust Score” for the top two voting methods, Americans’ trend toward trusting the fully computerized DRE voting systems becomes clearer.”

                                          Net Trust Score (Positive Minus Negative)

Voting System                             2004                2005                2006

DRE                                               53%                 42%                 52%

Precinct Optical Scan                 42%                 49%                 44%

Newkirk concluded his analysis of this voting technology trend, “In 2005, the opinion switched to produce a net preference for optical scan systems in polling places over fully computerized voting systems. Undoubtedly, voting interest groups’ negative campaigns against DREs succeeded in temporarily driving up the negative trust scores for those systems. However, this year’s results show a change back to a higher trust rating for the DREs, which is consistent with the results from 2004. After all the controversy and heated rhetoric by voting interest groups, American opinion on this issue is statistically back where it was in 2004 with a higher trust rating in the confidentiality and accuracy of the computerized voting systems.”

The Help America Vote Act requires all polling places to have voting systems that are accessible to people with disabilities. Most precinct optical scan systems cannot meet this mandate, leading to many election jurisdictions selection of computerized systems that have a greater capability to meet the federal accessibility requirements.

Newkirk, whose firm has worked in Oregon which conducts its elections by mailing ballots to all registered voters, noted another interesting trend from the survey. “Among the four voting technologies, the one that has shown a steady, consistent increase in trust among the survey’s respondents is Vote-by-Mail (VBM). VBM started with just slightly less than one-third (31%) of the survey’s respondents giving it a positive trust rating. In our latest survey, that level has risen to 38%, which is a statistically significant increase over the span of our surveys.” 

Newkirk continued his analysis of this technology trend by saying, “More and more election jurisdictions, particularly in the West, are looking at Vote-by-Mail. However, the interest in VBM is spreading to other areas of the country. In our survey this year, approximately half (52%) of the respondents in the West gave positive trust ratings to VBM. That number is statistically identical to the level (51%) in our 2004 survey.” 

“However, the positive trust rating in VBM has increased over the 2004-2006 survey period from 20% to 30% in the Northeast, from 25% to 33% in the South, and from 30% to 38% in the North Central region. This form of voting is the only one of the four in our survey that has shown a steady growth in its trust ratings nationwide.”

The survey also asked respondents to rate their trust in the confidentiality and accuracy of Internet voting. Newkirk noted, “The USA has not changed its strongly negative view of Internet voting. The positive trust ratings for Internet voting in official elections have been steady at 32% in 2004, 29% in 2005, and 30% and 2006. It will be interesting to see if these numbers change as more and more Americans do banking, investing, and other government transactions over the Internet.”

Newkirk concluded his analysis of the survey by saying, “InfoSENTRY’s survey shows that Americans’ attitudes on which voting systems they trust have remained relatively stable since the passage of Federal legislation mandating widespread changes in the USA’s voting technology. There have been no wide swings in opinion for the large majority of Americans. Even with all the uproar generated by voting system critics and with all the mistrust that lingers from the close Presidential election in 2004, a majority of Americans are ready to adopt and use computerized voting systems. A growing minority has expressed increased trust in voting by mail. Our opinion survey does not support voting critics’ assertions that most Americans are only comfortable when they go into a voting booth and mark a paper ballot. They are willing to use some newer voting technologies and to discern between those they trust and those they do not.”  

 

This news release presents the findings of a telephone survey conducted among a national probability sample of 1004 adults comprising 502 men and 502 women 18 years of age and older, living in private households in the continental United States. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage (±3%) points.

InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. will publish detailed results and analysis of this survey and attitude trends on its website at www.infosentry.com on February 14. A detailed analysis of the 2004 national survey is also on the website.

Interviewing for this Opinion Research Center CARAVAN® Survey was completed during the period January 12 – 15, 2006. Opinion Research Center is one of the best known and most established opinion research organizations in the United States.

InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. is an independent information technology services firm based in Raleigh, NC. The firm manages project assessments, quality assurance reviews, information systems security and business continuity projects, and system analyses for clients throughout the United States and Europe. InfoSENTRY® has no financial relationships or business partnerships with hardware, software, or security product firms, allowing it a uniquely independent perspective to evaluate, review, and manage information technology projects. InfoSENTRY® does not endorse any vendor’s specific information technology services or products.

The survey questions, response set, and data associated with this opinion survey are Copyright 2006, by InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. They are property of the firm. All rights reserved. The InfoSENTRY logo and InfoSENTRY® are registered trademarks of InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. CARAVAN® is a registered trademark of Opinion Research Corporation.

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