1. Election Administration

2. Ensuring legitimacy of the government Legitimacy: acceptance of the right of public officials to hold office and to promulgate policies because of the means by which they were chosen. Acceptance of rules Public faith in system? Free speech and association Equal access to voting Accurately count votes Fairly weight votes Enforceable election laws Government must be somewhat effective

3. How do we count votes? Paper Lever Punchcard Optical scan DRE (Direct Record Electronic) Problems with each?

4. Problems with vote-counting User error Residual votes –Over votes –Under votes Potential for fraud –“Stuffing” the ballot box –“Easter Eggs”

5. Other problems with election administration Cost, maintenance, and storage Instructions to poll workers “Chain of custody” procedures/security Voter list accuracy ID card requirements?

6. Solutions? National standards? –HAVA (Help America Vote Act, 2002) Voters have to be able to review ballots to check for errors Voters can get provisional ballot if there is a question about their registration Have to give ID card number/SSN when registering to vote the first time

7. Solutions? National Standards –Current CA standards DRE must have voter-verified paper trail System up to county Regular testing of systems

8. Solutions? National standards? Paper trails for DRE’s? (Or Audio?) Other suggestions?