NIST - Electronic Poll Books

OMB Control No. – 0693-0043 – NIST Generic Clearance for Usability Data Collections

NIST - Electronic Poll Books: Usage in Elections

FOUR STANDARD SURVEY QUESTIONS

1. Explain who will be surveyed and why the group is appropriate to survey.

In previous research efforts, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has investigated the use of voting systems in U.S. elections. In this effort, NIST will gather information from subject-matter experts on the use of electronic poll books in the U.S. elections they officiate. This is an exploration through collegial discussions to find facts about what, why, and how electronic poll books are used.

Having previously researched, via literature and web searches, the landscape of electronic poll book software and hardware used throughout the U.S., we will now turn to government elections officials in select states as our subject-matter experts. We will contact and visit some jurisdictions in various states to discuss and learn about electronic poll book usage in the state. The election officials of the jurisdictions contacted have first-hand knowledge of the electronic poll books used in their states and counties, and can provide the information needed to gain a deeper understanding of their use.

This information collection is being conducted by NIST employees, in conjunction with the Center for Civic Design, under the NIST cooperative agreement #70NANB14H280. The subject-matter experts will consist of 10-20 election officials from various states. These election officials are appropriate to fill the role of subject-matter experts due to the nature of their position and the use of electronic poll books in their states.

2. Explain how the survey was developed including consultation with interested parties, pre-testing, and responses to suggestions for improvement.

The fact-finding topics for this information collection were developed by NIST researchers with input from the aforementioned Center for Civic Design. To learn about the use of electronic poll books, related topics will be discussed to gather information.

3. Explain how the survey will be conducted, how customers will be sampled if fewer than all customers will be surveyed, expected response rate, and actions your agency plans to take to improve the response rate.

An email (Instrument Summary) will be sent to 10-20 election officials, inviting them to be subject-matter experts to discuss electronic poll book use in their states. The invitees will respond to the email to indicate their willingness to be subject-matter experts. The sample of 10-20 election officials of the 50 states will be chosen based on a convenience sample and previous research. There will be either a phone or in-person meeting, at the convenience and preference of each election official, to discuss the fact-finding topics. Researchers will take notes during the meeting to collect subject-matter expert responses. All election officials contacted are anticipated to accept the role of subject-matter expert; the expected response rate is 100%.

4. Describe how the results of the survey will be analyzed and used to generalize the results to the entire customer population.

The results will be qualitatively analyzed; the purpose of the fact-finding topics in this information collection is to gather sufficient background knowledge about the usage of electronic poll books in the U.S. to inform future research. There will be no direct generalization of the responses to a larger population; responses may lead to future research that will be generalized to the U.S.