Washblog

There about 20 people in my class. Another 20 in the poll worker class next door.

I was easily the youngest person in class. One guy's tee-shirt said "I'm a Senior Citizen - Gimme My Discount!" He looked to be about the median age.

The trainers (Sylvia, Ann, Bill) were pretty good. They were very professional in their conduct, patient, very helpful, and tried very hard to make sure we understood what they were explaining. They even did a good job keeping the class on schedule. Pretty hard with people like me interrupting with questions.

I was less excited by the training materials and strategy. I'm a visual learner. Audio doesn't do much for me. Perhaps a better way to teach the procedures would be to show before explaining and having us do it ourselves. That'd cover everyone's learning style. I know it's a lot of work, but it would have been better if the materials we used for practice were closer to the real thing we'll use on election day. The differences were distractions.

For extra credit, I'd like to see role playing during training. Because we learn best by teaching others. The trainers do a good job covering many scenarios and how to handle them. It'd be great if we could pretend it's election day and we all actually go through all the motions.

A fun exercise was proofreading the example Poll Book and Inspector's List. Some of the errors were non-obvious.

I was pretty impressed by the questions from the class. There's just so many details. And the Elections people are always improving things. Small stuff that wouldn't be obvious until you do it. Like including a small flashlight with the large black ballot bin the optical scanner uses. It helps you look around inside to make sure you removed all the ballots. Also, using matching colors for transmittal slips and delivery bags. Red for red, blue for blue. That's pretty clever.

Hands On

I finally got to use a Diebold AccuVote TSx touchscreen voting machine.

The Printer

As I observed before, the printer for the voter verified paper audit trail is crap. Clearly an afterthought and done on the cheap. While showing us how to install the device, the trainer warned us that the big lid doesn't lock in the up position, so be mindful that it doesn't crash down on your hand. Like a guillotine. Geesh.

I've read accounts of people "hearing" their paper ballot being printed. The AccuVote TSx has a noiseless thermal print head. Just like at the grocery store. The machine itself makes printing noises by playing an audio file. That just doesn't sit right with me. It's a lie.

We were also warned to not wrap the paper around the take-up reel too tightly, because it could break the machine. If true, that's just sad. Imagine the cash register breaking if the clerk wound the paper tape too tight. I suspect poor design and cheap parts. That belief is reinforced by how it looks. We're paying a BMW premium price for cheap Yugo cars.

Audio Ballots for the Blind

I tried out audio features of the Diebold AccuVote TSx. Seeing how the justification for these machines is to allow the disabled to vote in "private", I wanted to see what I'm getting for my money. It was very illuminating.

I can't imagine a blind person approving of the AccuVote TSx. Maybe I'm wrong.

We all know voice mail hell, right? That's how the AccuVote works. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. But Diebold didn't do very well.

You use the detachable 12-key pad to navigate the audio menus. I'll call it the telephone user interface, or TUI. You use '1' and '2' to change the volume, "asterick" and '#' to change the playback speed. There's probably a reason '5' is used as the first ballot choice. Though '6' is for moving to the next ballot. I guess the organization of the options made no sense to me.

I was really surprised the audio doesn't have automatic pitch adjustment. When you make the playback faster, it's like listening to the chipmunks.

Also surprising, the speed control is not bounded. I imagine the only speeds that would ever be useful are normal, fast, and faster. Why anyone would slow the voice down, like the intro to Prince's song "1999", is beyond me. You can easily, therefore meaning accidently, speed up or slow down audio enough to make the system unusable. That's a user interface design flaw.

My favorite feature, by far, is the buzz sound when you do something wrong. The AccuVote TSx plays a "bzzz" when you type at the wrong time. It's actually a bit louder than the voice audio, so it'll probably hurt your ears when wearing headphones (I tried, it hurt). Modern TUIs allow type ahead, interruption, high level navigation, feedback that you've selected an incorrect key, etc. The AccuVote TSx just buzzes. Very clever.

In my opinion, as an expert user interface designer that has never made a product for the blind, the audio feature of the AccuVote TSx is deeply flawed.

By comparison, the Vote-PAD uses a model of audio tape player favored by blind users. Big buttons with embossed symbols. Intuitive controls. Familiar technology. Reasonable price. I believe that in this case, simple is better and the Vote-PAD did it right.

Visuals

There's a bunch of settings for how your ballot appears on screen. The best settings are "High Contrast" and "Large Text". That's black on white with large text. The smaller texts is some areas are too small, even for me. The use of color throughout the product is just awful.

With the smaller text, multiple ballots can be shown, kind of simulating the paper ballot. Usability wise, I'd prefer a single race per screen, kind of like a wizard approach.

Typographically, meaning document and forms design as well as the rendering of the text, buttons, and other visuals, there's a lot of room for improvement. Some elements get clipped, like running into each other or off screen. The layout is inconsistent, which seems to be a Diebold trademark. I don't know how much is controlled by our people at the Elections office vs provided by Diebold. Either way, the skills of a talented graphic designer are desperately needed. It's embarrassingly bad.

Touchscreen

We've all heard about the problems voting using touchscreens. The common excuse is "miscalibration". Yea, sure. I'm not sure that can explain vote switching.

As many know, Snohomish County had problems with a different product from Sequoia Voting Systems called the Edge Advantage (?). I've asked a lot of people for their take on those problems. One novel explanation (theory) was that it was raining election day. When a wet sleeves accidently brushed the touchscreen, a vote was registered. Well. Okay. I've heard stranger things.

So another inspector and I intentionally tried to misvote. To test this idea, I unbuttoned my sleeve to let it hang down. Dragged it back and forth. Raised it up and down. Touched with both a finger and my sleeve. The other inspector tried a bunch of stuff too. Even placing both hands and forearms on the screen. I couldn't misvote with the sleeve. The other inspector had to purposefully try to misvote.

I didn't think to first get my sleeve wet. I don't know what the touchscreen technology is. Probably induction. So that might work.

We weren't taught to calibrate the touchscreens. There's a separate poll worker who will tend the machine, a position called the AVU Judge. Maybe they do the calibration, if at all.

Anyway, I currently think the miscalibration excuse is tired and probably wrong.

Complexity

Well, one thing is certain: electronic voting makes our elections a lot more complicated. King County isn't wrong there. There's a few sources of complexity.

The first comes from having 5 different types of ballots: poll site, absentee, challenge, provisional, and now virtual. For each ballot type, you have to handle the same kinds of errors and mistakes, including spoiled, canceled, and abandoned ballots. As well as undervotes and overvotes.

Because we vote in our own precincts, each with its own mix of races, we all need to be issued our ballots. For virtual ballots, you're issued a voting card (a smartcard, like a credit card with a chip inside) when you sign in. The card is encoded with which ballot to use. You walk to the machine, insert card in slot, and vote. Note that there's a separate computer device used for issuing voting cards.

Other sources of complexity come from using Poll Books, handling provisional ballots [1], and custody of the ballot. With electronic voting, you trade the paper ballot, which is how God intended us to vote, for a virtual ballot on a voting card, poll tapes, and memory cards.

See? Electronic voting, which is unconstitutional, expensive, and unreliable, makes everything a lot more complicated. All traits it shares with forced mail voting.

Further, what is obvious with a paper ballots becomes invisible with voting cards and virtual ballots. For instance, it's real clear when someone spoils their paper ballot and asks for another one. You tear the ballot and write a large "SB" across it. Very obvious. Using the voting card, you're trusting the computers to get things right. Which has always proven to be a bad idea.

[1] Which our touchscreen machines don't do, unless you're a blind absentee voter who decided to come into the poll to vote. Yea, the rules get that nutty. We students were groaning.

Location

One bummer is the location. The Annex is near the Museum of Flight and Boeing field. Bus service is pretty bad. I left a bit late (can't help socializing). Leaving, I spotted a lady from my class on the sidewalk. She had that look, so I stopped to ask if she needed help. She'd been outside waiting for the bus for about 45 minutes and had to get downtown. So I offered her a ride. During the trip, she explained that prior training was at North Seattle Community College, which was very accessible for her.

It might be that the Inspector training is only offered at the Annex. I'm dubious of spending more money on new facilities, like our King County Executive has been pushing. But the Annex really doesn't work out very well for bus riders.