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Berkeley part of new e-voting research center
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EECS professor David Wagner is co-principal investigator of the new NSF-funded e-voting research center.
PEG SKORPINSKI PHOTO
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UC Berkeley will work with five institutions nationwide in the first large research effort to improve the reliability of electronic voting technology.
A new interdisciplinary center at Johns Hopkins University—A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable, and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE)—will bring together experts in computer science, law, and usability to address existing problems, such as lack of voter-verified paper trails, and explore new advances for computerized voting systems.
The announcement comes as growing numbers of election officials eye e-voting as an alternative to hanging chads and other outdated balloting methods. The percentage of U.S. voters using electronic voting equipment jumped from 13 percent in 2000 to 29 percent in 2004, according to Election Data Services.
“Many of today’s e-voting systems were rushed into production in response to the pressure to replace punched-card balloting after the controversial 2000 presidential election,” says Berkeley EECS professor David Wagner, co-principal investigator of the new center. “It was done before the research community was able to lay the groundwork to ensure that these electronic systems wouldn't replace old problems with new ones.”
Funding of $7.5 million over five years will come from the National Science Foundation; Berkeley is expected to receive about $1.3 million. Other participants include Rice University, Stanford, the University of Iowa, and SRI International. |
