Nevada exit poll shows voters prefer paper receipt
The vendor-sponsored poll is the second of its kind supporting paper receipts 
News Story by Dan Verton

NOVEMBER 11, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - WASHINGTON A Washington-based public opinion firm yesterday released the results of an Election Day survey of voters in Nevada that it says supports the case for issuing paper receipts for all votes cast electronically.

Working with Ohio State University political science professor Michael John Burton, Lomardo Consulting Group surveyed 362 voters in Nevada the only state to use statewide voter-verified paper ballot printers attached to electronic voting machines on Election Day. The survey was funded by VoteHere Inc., a Bellevue, Wash.-based electronic voting system vendor that specializes in voter-verified paper receipt technology.

According to Lomardo Consulting, 81% of voters in Nevada said they would like to receive a private receipt, similar to an ATM receipt, after casting a vote electronically. And nearly one-third said they had actually used their paper receipt to check that their votes had been recorded accurately.

"That's a pretty strong result," said Peter Ventimiglia, vice president of Lombardo Consulting. Although the survey sample of 362 voters was small and the margin of error was plus or minus 5%, Ventimiglia said he is "very comfortable" with the results.

Burton said he views the results of the survey as evidence of an "overwhelming desire to have some kind of private ATM-style receipt" for e-voting systems. The fact is "we do see some disparity in the accurate counting of the votes," said Burton. And "voters who use computers and see their computers crash have some level of suspicion in [the integrity of the vote]."

Questions also arose about the integrity of the survey, since it was funded by VoteHere, a company with a vested commercial interest in promoting greater use of paper receipts for electronic voting machines. When asked about the appearance of undue influence on the outcome of the survey, Jim Adler, founder and CEO of VoteHere, acknowledged that the company wanted to know where voters stand on the issue of paper receipts for the purpose of promoting its business strategy.

He stressed, however, that the survey group "kept us at arm's length. The survey takers were aware that there was ultimately a commercial interest, but they were in no way coached," said Ventimiglia.

The Nevada poll is the second such vendor-sponsored poll to show that voters like the idea of a paper receipt that they can use to verify that their electronic votes have been recorded properly. In August, AccuPoll Inc., a developer of direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems, teamed with research firm Public Opinion Strategies on a survey that showed 74% of likely voters felt that computerized voting systems should produce a voter-verified paper audit trail.

AccuPoll designed its DRE voting system from the outset to include a voter-verified paper audit trail.

"Right now, with any sort of balloting, you walk away and you hope for the best," said Adler. "Now all we have are allegations back and forth and we don't have proof of anything," he said. "We [get a receipt] with electronic banking and UPS shipments. Why is voting so different? It isn't."