A Study of Ballot Anomaly Detection with a Transparent voting machine

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Juan Gilbert discusses ballot anomaly detection and the use of a transparent voting machine

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Juan Gilbert discusses ballot anomaly detection and the use of a transparent voting machine

Image courtesy of interviewee. November 27, 2023

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This video video discusses the importance of ballot marking devices in ensuring the integrity and confidence in elections, highlighting their role in facilitating accessible voting and improving the accuracy of the vote tally process. It describes how these devices function as touchscreens that allow voters to select their choices, which are then printed on paper to serve as the official ballot.

The speaker emphasizes the necessity of implementing risk-limiting audits to verify the accuracy of election outcomes. Additionally, research is cited demonstrating that traditional hand-marked paper ballots can lead to confusion and misinterpretation of voter intent. A new transparent voting machine design is introduced, which aims to enhance the detection of any changes made to a voter's selections.

In studies conducted using this technology, a higher percentage of participants noticed if their selections were altered compared to previous methods, indicating the effectiveness of the new device in promoting election integrity. The conclusion asserts that the transparent voting machine design not only improves usability for voters but also enhances security by making it easier to identify discrepancies in the voting process.

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Well, it's an important area that is critical

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to our democracy,

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and I think it's essential that we have to do this work

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to ensure the integrity of elections, confidence

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of elections, and it's necessary.

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So that's why we do it.

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So a ballot marking device, think of it as a computer

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that's a touch screen where you can go in

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and touch the screen, essentially marking a ballot,

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and it prints on paper the your selections

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or the actual ballot, that is the ballot of record.

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That ballot then goes into a ballot box

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or scans at some point and used as part of the tally.

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So with that said,

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after you do that, you can do a risk limiting audit,

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which is a statistical audit, a specific type of audit

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that allows you to ensure the integrity

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of the actual tally machines that they,

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or the scanners that it goes through.

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There are places where you can use a ballot marking device.

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There are certain states in the United States that, some

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of them, the whole state uses a ballot marking device.

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Uh, there are other places that,

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don't have it statewide.

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There are places that still require you to mark on paper.

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If you have a disability, for example,

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you're visually impaired

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or blind, you can ask to use an accessible voting machine,

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which may be a ballot marking device.

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So these ballot marking devices are being used in elections

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nationwide, in the United States

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and in other places in the world.

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So they are quite popular.

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If you allow people to write on a ballot,

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they take the privilege of writing on the ballot,

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meaning they can mark any way they want, any how they want.

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And then what do you have? You have a debate.

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The two, in our case, the United States,

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two parties looking at the ballot, arguing.

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That's not of actual vote, that's not what they intended.

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You have to interpret someone's ballot selection.

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We do not want to be in that situation.

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So that's one of the negatives

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of allowing a hand marked paper ballot is the ability

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for people to mark any way they want.

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And then you have to interpret those marks

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and those interpretations may not translate to

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what the voter's intent was.

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So that's an issue.

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The transparent voting machine was motivated by research

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that was done at the University of Michigan

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and Rice University,

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where they looked at ballot marking devices

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and they were printing a ballot.

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And when they print the ballot, they would switch one

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of the selections that the voter made,

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and they wanted to see if people would notice.

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And, in their studies, they were reporting that,

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for example, in Michigan, only 6.6% of the voters noticed,

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that their vote was flipped.

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Well, in that case, that's an insufficient number

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to really detect the outcome

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of an election could be changed.

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So with that in mind, I designed this transparent,

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voting machine.

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The idea is that

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if you could turn the paper almost into a touch screen such

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that you could touch the screen,

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but it almost is like interacting with the paper in a way

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that every time you make a selection, you have

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to actually touch that selection and verify it.

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And in doing so, we were able to run a study

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and we saw a significant improvement over

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previous numbers, in, in, in, in this area.

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In fact, it, it was almost, ironic that in our,

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in my study, there was only 6.6% of the participants

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that could not identify the change.

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So way more people were able

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to identify the change and notice the change.

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This technology, if it was being used, you could not

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flip votes in a way to change the outcome

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of the election such that it would be undetected.

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So we did this study in 2021, essentially right

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after the presidential election.

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So what I did was take the, I'm in the, at the University

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of Florida in the state of Florida.

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So I took the 2020 Florida presidential ballot

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and, used that as the ballot.

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And we told the participants

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that we were just doing a survey with this new technology

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to see voter sentiment after the election.

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So they didn't know what we were actually studying.

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What happened was then we would randomly flip one

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of their selections, and we wanted to see if they notice.

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And so the voter would, you know, interact

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with the transparent voting machine.

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I flipped one of their votes

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and there was different scenarios that played out.

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I'll walk you through a couple of them.

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Uh, one is I flipped their vote

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and they immediately notice and they say something.

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The other is they notice, but they didn't say anything.

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So I, I started to see that I flip a vote and,

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and they do this, they make a face

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or there was a reaction, but they didn't speak up.

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So they'll finish up.

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And then when they were done, I say, how did it go?

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They say, fine. And I say, well, by the way,

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did you notice I flipped one of your votes?

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And they say, yes. I say, well, why didn't you say anything?

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It's just a study. It doesn't matter.

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But, but it was a real election. They would've spoken up.

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So that was a scenario.

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Uh, so there was these different scenarios

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of which they would identify the flip,

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and in all cases, they saw it

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and they identified it at a record number.

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Those who actually, so I'll give you,

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I start in reverse basically,

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but those who noticed the flip occurred

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and spoke up, that was, roughly 36%,

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but then 41% noticed, but didn't say anything.

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But they were able to identify what was flipped.

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So they, they actually saw, but they didn't speak up.

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Okay, so that's 77% right there,

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who noticed immediately.

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So that number is my bottom number.

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And then there were some who, say they didn't notice,

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but they looked at the paper

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and correctly identified the change that was roughly 16%.

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And then again, there was only 6.6% that did not notice

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and could not identify the flip or change.

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It tells me that this is

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an improvement on existing ballot marking devices.

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This technology that we created,

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a transparent voting machine, does not exist.

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We created it. Invented it. Now, why am I saying that?

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No person in this study, 151 participants, none

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of them would've ever interacted with a device like this.

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But you know what, when they did, when they voted,

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not a single person said,

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I don't understand how to use this.

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How does this work? How do I do it?

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So we know we created something that was usable

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for all voters.

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We know it's secure

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because we had a record number of votes

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identified as being flipped.

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So advances the current state of technology

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in a positive direction.

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A Study of Ballot Anomaly Detection with a Transparent voting machine

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