Over 94 % Agree Georgia Should Upgrade to New Electronic Voting Equipment

SecRETARY Cox: Electronic Voting Pilot Project Exit Poll Shows Strong Support For Modern “DRE” Voting Equipment

ATLANTA … The results of an exit poll of nearly 2,200 voters who participated in Georgia’s electronic voting pilot project November 6^th show widespread acceptance of the new voting technology, and strong support for Secretary of State Cathy Cox’s plan to deploy new electronic equipment in all 159 Georgia counties.

The exit poll, conducted outside selected precincts in each of the 13 Georgia municipalities that participated in the pilot project, shows that 94.5 % of voters who had just cast votes on one of the new electronic systems agreed with the statement, “Georgia should upgrade its voting system to a system like the one I used today.”  Some 97.2 % of respondents said the equipment was “very easy” or “easy” to use and 95.9 % of those polled said they were “confident” or “very confident” that their vote was recorded correctly.

“Traveling across the state to pilot cities on election day, it was clear to me that voters were responding very favorably to the new electronic voting units,” said Secretary Cox.  “But this new data from over two thousand real-life Georgians who used electronic voting equipment gives us an objective and scientific measurement of just how widely accepted this new technology was by voters of every age, race and region.  By amazingly large majorities voters found the equipment easy to use, secure and an improvement over the older systems they have voted on in previous elections.  This new data presents a very powerful endorsement for the course Georgia has set to deploy a modern, uniform voting system by 2004,” Ms. Cox added.

Critics of electronic voting systems often express the concern that elderly voters, in particular, would be reluctant to adapt to new computerized voting technologies.  Secretary Cox noted that survey results fly directly in the face of those preconceptions.  Exit poll respondents age 65 and older endorsed the new DRE equipment at nearly the same percentages as those in younger age groups.  Some 96.6 % of voters over age 65 rated the equipment “very easy” or “easy” to use and 96% agreed that Georgia “Should upgrade its voting system to a system like the one I used today.”  Nearly nine out of ten seniors also said the electronic ballot “was easier to see and read” and 82.7 % rated the DRE equipment as “much better” or “somewhat better” than the equipment they normally cast votes on.

The exit poll was designed and results were computed with the assistance of the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Behavioral Research at the University of Georgia.  The Secretary of State’s office recruited and trained 143 Georgia college students to work as interviewers, stationed outside of precinct locations in each pilot city.  The survey results reflect the views of 2,183 voters who cast votes on one of six different types of electronic voting units tested during the November 6^th municipal elections. 

Secretary Cox noted that the exit poll sample is exceptionally large, representing over 15 % of all those who cast ballots in the participating cities on election day.  Georgia’s pilot project was one of the most extensive field evaluations of electronic voting technology held anywhere in the United States.  Assisting in developing the pilot project was the 21^st Century Vote Commission, a bipartisan panel of election officials, General Assembly members and community leaders.

Six major voting equipment manufacturers participated in the pilot project: Diversified Dynamics, Election Systems & Software, Global Election Systems, Hart InterCivic, Shoup Voting Solutions and Unilect.  Representatives from each vendor were involved in public education and poll worker training before the election, and were on hand election day to insure that the systems operated properly.

Selected statistical highlights from the electronic voting pilot project exit poll: 

Table 1
Ease of System Use

Table 2
Ease of System Use, By Age

This new exit poll data follows a statewide survey conducted in early November by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.  The Peach State Poll of 802 randomly selected Georgia voters, conducted independently of the Secretary of State’s office, showed that substantial majorities support Secretary Cox’s legislation to move Georgia to a modern, uniform system of voting.  Four out of five polled approve of the uniform statewide voting initiative, and some 69 percent of respondents support increased state spending for modernizing election equipment.