A New Approach to Voting: An Accessible Voter Verifiable Paper Ballot

Abstract

The 2000 U.S. Presidential Election brought national attention to electronic voting when an estimated 50,000 ballots were discarded and not counted. The body of research presented in this thesis will describe a method that solves electronic voting issues entitled the Accessible Voter Veri able Paper Ballot(AVVPB), which prints a barcode image containing voters' selections made on an electronic voting system, Prime III. Once done printing, voters scan the barcode and through a multimodal user interface voters can either view their vote selections printed on the ballot or listen to their vote selections as it is read back to them by the computer. The multimodality of AVVPB allows voters with various disabilities, e.g. visual impairments, hearing impairments, physical impairments, etc, to independently verify their ballot. Essentially, everyone can be ensured that their vote will be cast as intended, regardless of their ability or disability.