CU Students May Have Solution To Problematic Voting Issue

The times some voters had to wait to cast ballots became a big issue during the 2012 election, even prompting President Barack Obama to reference it in his acceptance speech, saying, “We have to fix that.” Clemson University graduate students went to work and came up with what they believe is a solution.

The interdisciplinary research team led by professor Juan Gilbert examined voting by paper ballot, machines and an alternative approach they created called balloting.  

“In the balloting process, voters go online or call our system to fill out their ballot,” Gilbert said. “When they are done, the system generates a QR code that represents their ballot. The QR code is scanned at the voting machine on election day.”

Gilbert said that with balloting, the voter’s screen will indicate their selection in a review screen. Individuals can change their selections and then print them. 

During the study, researchers compared the average time it took participants to complete the 2012 presidential ballot from Broward County, Fla., on paper, using a voting machine and by balloting.

The participants reported a significant reduction in time using the balloting method:

• Paper ballots: 4.5 minutes
• Voting machines: 3.8 minutes
• Balloting: 48 seconds

The Clemson researchers developed a queuing model to analyze the results and report the average wait time based on the number of voting machines, voter arrival rate and other information.

“The students’ findings suggest balloting could play a significant role in improving voting, specifically, the amount of time it takes to vote and reducing errors made by voters,” Gilbert said. “The findings are preliminary, but they show the balloting approach warrants further investigation.”

Gilbert, plans to replicate this study on a larger scale. He believes balloting will help make voting more accessible, accurate and easier to use.

Gilbert is the Presidential Endowed Chair in Computing and chairman of the Human-Centered Computing Division in the School of Computing at Clemson. The student researchers were in his Fundamentals of Human-Centered Computing class this fall semester.