Election Integrity Is Not Just A Security Problem: Human Factors in Voting Systems

When most people think about election integrity, they think about things like keeping ballots secure. While that is indeed critical, there are many other parts of the process that are equally important, such as making sure that ballots accurately capture voter intent. This talk will discuss multiple ways that understanding how to design for people is critical to ensuring the integrity of elections, drawing examples from real elections and scientific research on human performance in voting contexts.

Michael Byrne is a Professor of Psychological Sciences and Computer Science at Rice University and the area chair of the Human Factors/Human-Computer Interaction program in the Department of Psychological Sciences. His primary research areas are usability of technological systems (particularly voting systems) and mathematical/computational models of human cognition and performance. He is a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Psychonomic Society as well as a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow.