E-Voting Assignment
CS 330 - Fall 2004 - Ms. Katz

Goals
- to explore the many concerns about e-voting systems
- to research some aspects of the problem in detail
- to practice your writing skills by preparing a paper expressing your technical opinion about this topic
- to practice your communication skills by giving a brief presentation to the class about what you have learned

Overview
As a computer scientist, you will be learning technical concepts. Many times you will need to explain those concepts to colleagues or the public. The ability to seek and find information and present it to others is something you should practice, and that is a goal of this assignment.

While using computers has brought many wonderful changes to our lives, it has also brought risks. A responsible computer scientist is aware of the risks and tries to minimize those risks. Incorporating computers into our voting system is one such risk. Both as interested citizens and responsible computer scientists, we must be aware of the technical concerns e-voting brings.

For this assignment, you will read some introductory papers. I will ask questions about those on the second test and possibly the final. You will explore some aspect of e-voting in more detail to help you address one of the topics listed below.

You will write a 5-page paper (double-spaced, 11-12 point font, 1 inch margins) as described below. It must be typed. I will grade it for technical correctness, clear presentation of ideas, spelling, and grammar. This paper must have technical content that is supported by references; therefore, include bibliographic references as needed. It should be your own work emphasizing your technical opinion.

You will give a 5 minute presentation on a related topic the week after Thanksgiving. This will be directed to your classmates, will have technical content pertaining to e-voting, and should have some visual aid.

Topics (get written approval from me for another topic)
Lancaster County uses lever-type mechanical voting machines. Under current law, this is the last presidential election for these machines. As we switch voting technologies, which features do you consider to be most important? Why? Which system do you think we should we switch to? Why?

Much of the controversy over electronic voting focusses on the need for a voter-verified paper ballot. Why is this important? What are the problems with having such a paper record? Why was such a record not included with e-voting systems? Should it be a requirement?

Optically scanned ballots are a familiar approach to recording choices. What are the pros and cons to using this system for voting? Why aren't more states adopting this approach?

Much of the current discussion focusses on DRE machines. However, Internet-based voting systems are another approach. What are the pros and cons for Internet-based voting? Why was the SERVE project not used by the Pentagon for the 2004 election?

A local columnist describes a possible voting system (Helen Colwell Adams, Sunday News, Nov 6, 2004). Evaluate the column as well as the proposed system with respect to the required reading.

Resources
Required Reading (distributed in class):

• "ACM Statement on Voting Systems," Jeff Grove, Comm. of ACM, Vol. 47, No. 10, October 2004, pp. 69-70.
• "The Perils of Polling," Steven Cherry, IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 41, No. 10 (NA), October 2004, pp. 34-40.
• "A Better Ballot Box," Rebecca Mercuri, IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 39, No. 10 (NA), October 2002, pp. 46-50.
• "The Problems and Potentials of Voting Systems," Peter G. Neumann, Comm. of ACM, Vol. 47, No. 10, October 2004, pp. 29-30.

Additional Resources (there are many others):

• http://www.verifiedvoting.org/
• http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.html
• http://www.acm.org/usacm/Issues/EVoting.htm
• http://www.electionline.org/
• CACM's October 2004 issue has several articles on e-voting as noted in the overview by Peter Neumann. The university has a subscription to ACM's Digital Library. Get there through the university's page, then Library, then Periodicals Collection, then Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library. You will be asked for your Library Identification Number (barcode from back of your university ID) and last name. ACM's portal may not be very fast because it checks back with the MU library. Communications of the ACM is considered a magazine. Click on those and then maybe search for voting in the search box. Or click on CACM and browse the current issue (note that the November 2004 issue has been published and may be the current one when you look).