JANUARY- Michael Alvarez begins an OpEd piece in the Pasadena Star News.
FEBRUARY- Betsy Sinclair (Caltech grad student) presented at University of California, Santa Barbara, a seminar titled "Is It Better to be First or Last? Estimation of the Ballot Order Effect". The seminar group is the "Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences" (QMSS). Visit their website for more information on their seminars.
- Michael Alvarez attended the AEI-Brookings Election Reform
Project Inauguration, held at the Brookings Institute in Washington. PowerPoint presentation
Visit these websites, for more information:
AEI Events
Brookings Institution
MARCH- Michael Alvarez and Ted Selker wrote a memorandum to Ron Rivest (chair, TGDC Subcommitee on Computer Security and Transparency) requesting that his subcommitee consider the development of standards for statewide voter registration databases.
- The VTP Annual Research Summit took place at MIT to discuss research and future project plans. More details here.
- News Article, Ted Selker, Nieman Watchdog: Practical Questions for Election Officials
APRIL- Ted Selker quoted in Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, OH newspaper) regarding voting machine technology [pdf]
- Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall have authored a new report, "Improving the Election Day Survey", in which they propose suggestions for improving the Election Assistance Commission's Election Day Survey, based on the EAC's 2004 survey. View the report and data here.
- Michael Alvarez attended a meeting at the Election Assistance Commission in Washington DC to discuss improving the EAC's surveys. More details on Election Updates.
MAY- The EAC is holding public hearings this week on standards. Here is the agenda.
- Ted Selker traveled to New Orleans to observe runoff elections. Commentary and photos coming soon.
- The VTP is happy to announce renewed funding from Carnegie Corporation and Knight Foundation.
JUNE - Michael Alvarez's Pasadena Star News Op Ed. [pdf]
- Ben Adida MIT PhD Thesis on ballot cryptoelectionline.org published a report by Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall on their observations of the California Primary.
- Election Day in CA: Visit Elections 2006/Los Angeles for photos/commentary.
JULY- Ted Selker receives Thomas Paine Award from the American Association of People with Disabilities for helping the disabled to vote.
- Working Paper #49 posted: "Are Americans Confident Their Ballots Are Counted?" Michael Alvarez, Thad Hall & Morgan Llewellyn
- Working Paper #48 posted: "How Hard Can it be: Do Citizens Think it is Difficult to Register to Vote?", Michael Alvarez, Thad Hall & Morgan Llewellyn
- Article to be published in Policy Studies Journal, "Controlling Democracy: The Principal-agent Problems In Election Administration", by Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall
AUGUST- Michael Alvarez Pasadena Star News Op Ed article: "A million dollars for voting is risky reform" [pdf]
- Ron Rivest and Ben Adida are featured in Technology Review : "Scratch-and-Vote System Could Help Eliminate Election Fraud"
- NEW INITIATIVE PROJECT RFP: VTP has $10,000 available to fund research on topics related to voting and elections for faculty and students on the Caltech and MIT campuses. Contact VTP for more details.
SEPTEMBER- Ron Rivest and Ben Adida’s paper “Scratch & Vote: Voter-Verifiable Paper-Based Cryptographic Voting” was accepted for the Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society, to be held on Oct 30 in Alexandria, VA.
- Accepted for publication: “How Hard Can It Be: Do Citizens Think It Is Difficult to Register to Vote?”, Michael Alvarez, Thad Hall & Morgan Llewellyn. To be published in the Stanford Law & Policy Review, Volume 18.
- Ben Adida has successfully defended his thesis and is moving on to a postdoctoral position at Harvard's Center for Research on Computation and Society where he will continue his work on voting. Ben is the first VTP graduate student with a PhD solely on voting technology
OCTOBER - Voter Identification and Registration Conference, at MIT (sponsored by VTP)
- PRESS RELEASE: Voter ID/Registration Conference on CNET
- "Blogging the 5th District": Michael Alvarez, interviewed for presstelegram.com (Long Beach, CA)
- "Experts fear Election Day Complications", Michael Alvarez interviewed by Los Angeles Times
- "Will Your Vote Count?", Ted Selker interviewed by MIT's Technology Review
NOVEMBER - New Survey on Voter Confidence , Michael Alvarez, Thad Hall, Morgan Llewellyn
- Check out VTP's 'electionupdates' for news reports and commentary on yesterday's election-- it's blogtastic
- World Usability Day Ted Selker's Media Lab group presented a Touchscreen Voting System. Video (YouTube) of MIT grad students [English, Sean Sullivan; Spanish, Ana Pandolfo]
- Watch the Voter ID/Registration video recording Ron Rivest's Georgia pollwatching report and photos: [1] [2].
- Michael Alvarez's narrated photo slide show from New Mexico election observation
- Ron Rivest's Georgia pollwatching report and photos: [1] [2]
- Hall/Alvarez article published in Nov 2006 (Vol 34, No. 4): "Controlling Democracy: The Principal-agent Problems in Election Administration"
DECEMBER- T Selker: "The Hotline's December House Cleaning: Ready for the Runoff?" - The Hotline Political Network
- T Selker: "Analysis points to bad ballot design" - Sarasota Herald Tribune
- Charles Stewart III, MIT Political Science Professor and VTP member, testified in Florida. News story
- Project Manager needed for MIT side of VTP. View job description
