Why did New Jersey counties keep choosing one insecure voting machine after another, for decades? Only this year did I realize what the reason might be. A century ago, New Jersey (like many other states) adopted lever voting machines that listed the offices by row, with the parties (and their candidates) across the columns: The […]
A Syllabus of Actions for Building the Society We Want
April 29, 2024 by Leave a Comment
This post is about a Syllabus of Actions, the result of last fall’s Building the Society We Want workshop, co-hosted by Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy and Center for Human Values. The central theme of the workshop was rejecting the premise that any new technology constitutes “progress” except insofar as it causes too many […]
Barcodes on paper ballots: the good, the bad, and the stealth
April 10, 2024 by 4 Comments
Paper ballots should not have barcodes to mark votes; paper ballots should have barcodes to mark ballot styles. Why is that? What’s the difference? And at the end, I describe a useful innovation from a company called Voting.works. One of the most important reasons we use paper ballots in elections is to protect our elections […]
Five Themes Discussed at Princeton’s Workshop on Decentralized Social Media
March 19, 2024 by Leave a Comment
On Monday, March 4, 2024, CITP and DeCenter co-hosted a workshop on the topic of decentralized social media. The invite-only workshop brought together a diverse group of leaders and innovators from the growing decentralized social media sphere, including scholars, engineers, and administrators who actively study, build, and manage decentralized social networks such as Mastodon, Bluesky, […]
Suggested Principles for State Statutes Regarding Ballot Marking and Vote Tabulation
March 18, 2024 by 1 Comment
This letter, signed by more than 20 election cybersecurity experts, was addressed to the Pennsylvania State Senate Committee on Government in response to a request for policy advice, but it applies in any state — especially those that use Ballot Marking Devices for all in-person voters: Georgia and South Carolina; most counties in Arkansas, New […]
