Voting Machines ProCon.org HOME | CLOSE

1. Name: Douglas W. Jones, Ph.D.  
2. Title: Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Iowa

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

"I cannot recommend large-scale funding for immediate modernization of voting systems across the country. To do so now would be to rush into the purchase of large numbers of [electronic voting] systems that...will be found failing by the standards we ought to have in place!" ("Problems With Voting Systems and Applicable Standards," testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, May 22, 2001)

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

6. Involvement:
  • Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Iowa
  • Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation's A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Accurate, and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE)
  • 2003-2004 - Vice President and Chief Technical Officer, Open Voting Consortium
  • 1999-2002 - Chair, Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting Systems
  • Provided testimony about electronic voting systems before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Congressional Black Caucus, Iowa State Association of Counties, New York State Board of Elections, and Connecticut Voting Technology Standards Board
7. Education:
  • Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1980
  • M.S., Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1976
  • B.S., Physics, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1973
8. Relevant Affiliations/Honors:
  • Member of several professional societies including Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
  • 2005-current - Founding Member, Voting Systems Performance Rating
  • 2004-current - Advisory Board - VerifiedVoting.org
  • 2003-current - National Committee on Voting Integrity
  • 2001 - Member, Iowa Election Reform Task Force

9. Contact Info:
Phone: (319) 335-0740 Fax: (319) 335-3624
E-Mail: jones@cs.uiowa.edu
Web Sitewww.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones

10. Other: Select publications include:
  • "Testing Voting Systems," available on his website, 2004
  • "The Evaluation of Voting Technologies," chapter in Secure Electronic Voting, 2003
  • "Problems With Voting Systems and Applicable Standards," testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, May 22, 2001
TOP CLOSE