Voting Machines ProCon.org HOME | CLOSE

1. Name: Harry Hochheiser, Ph.D.  
2. Title: Computer-Human Interaction Researcher

3. Voting Machines
Position:		 Neutral to the question "Do electronic voting machines improve the voting process?"
4. Reasoning:

"Voters who do not know how to use the voting system found in their polling place will find it very difficult to cast their votes. This is particularly true for systems that use technologies that are unfamiliar to many voters. Touch-screen voting systems, with their somewhat idiosyncratic calibration requirements, may be particularly troublesome in this regard... User interfaces that enable voters to easily and successfully cast their votes with appropriate feedback and provide these users with verifiable control over their votes are most likely to be used correctly and instill trust and confidence in users." ("The Need for Usability of Electronic Voting Systems: Questions for Voters and Policy Makers", white paper submitted to the National Academy of Sciences, 2005)

5. Credibility
Ranking:		  Experts
Election officials, people with post-graduate degrees in a computer science, J.D.s, Members of Congress, or elected officials with significant involvement in, or related to, electronic voting machine issues

6. Involvement:
  • Member, Executive Committee of Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) U.S. Public Policy Committee
  • Member, ACM Committee on Guidelines for Implementation of Voter Registration Databases
  • 2005 - Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) Advisory Council
  • 2005 - Delivered presentation on usability of electronic voting machines to the Committee on a Framework for Understanding Electronic Voting of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 2003-2005 - Research Fellow, Imaging Informatics and Computational Biology Unit, National Institute of Aging
  • 1997-2003 - Board of Directors, Director-at-Large, CPSR
7. Education:
  • Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Maryland, 2003
  • M.S., Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • B.S., Computer Science, MIT
8. Relevant Affiliations/Honors:
  • Member, Association for Computing Machinery
  • Member, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
9. Contact Info:
Phone: Not listed Fax: Not listed
E-Mail: hsh@cs.umd.edu
Web Site: www.acm.org/usacm/Committee/HHochheiser.htm
10. Other:
  • "The Need for Usability of Electronic Voting Systems: Questions for Voters and Policy Makers," white paper submitted to the National Academy of Sciences, 2005
TOP CLOSE