Time: 11a–12:30p

Days: M/W/F (most weeks, class will meet on two of these three days, usually Monday and Wednesday; class will occasionally be held on Friday to accomodate the staff's schedule.)

Location: Baker Hall 114 (see campus map)

Registration information: ESTHER listing; CRN: 12028

CALENDAR

Week of

Day

Topic

Readings/Notes

Aug 28

M

Introduction

W

Stein: How elections rule democratic politics (1)

lecture notes (PDF)

F

Stein: How elections rule democratic politics (2)

Sep 4

M

No class (LABOR DAY)

W

Stein: How elections rule democratic politics (3)

Readings (updated)

F

Wallach: A brief history of voting technologies

Readings

Sep 11

M

Project group meetings

W

Wallach: Computer security basics

F

Wallach: Security of current voting systems

Sep 18

M

Byrne: What is human factors and how is voting a human factors problem?

Lecture Notes, Readings

W

Byrne: The science, practice, and products of human factors

F

Project group meetings

Sep 25

M

Byrne: Methods in human factors and usability I

Readings

W

Byrne: Usability in voting systems

Readings

F

Project group meetings

Oct 2

M

Wallach: The VVPAT debate

Readings

W

Stein: Understanding turnout (1)

Readings

F

Project group meetings

Oct 9

M

Stein: Understanding turnout (2)

W

Stein: Understanding turnout (3)

F

Project group meetings

Oct 16

M

No class (MIDTERM RECESS)

W

Stein: How we vote, does it matter? (1)

F

Stein: How we vote, does it matter? (2)

Oct 23

M

Byrne: Accessibility I

W

Byrne: Accessibility II

Readings

F

Project group meetings

Oct 30

M

Wallach: Voting system evaluation & standards

Readings

W

Wallach: Why software is hard to trust

F

Project group meetings

Nov 6

M

Project group meetings

Nov 7

T

Election day!

W

Project group meetings

F

Nov 13

M

W

Byrne: Usability in other parts of the election process

F

Project group meetings

Nov 20

M

Guest: Brazoria county elections director: Managing the change from punch cards to DREs

W

F

No class (THANKSGIVING)

Nov 27

M

Wallach: Engineering a better voting machine (resched.)

Readings

W

Wallach: Fancy cryptographic voting schemes (resched.)

Readings

F

Project group meetings

Dec 4

M

Project group meetings

W

Project presentations
Bryce (ES&S); Greene; Winkler; James "Voter Confidence and Ballot Difficulty"

F

Project presentations
Goggin, Jennings, & Morgan, "Straight Ticket Voting: Who punches once and why?"; Vogel, Derozier, & Armendt "Information messages in write-in campaigns"; Gopalan & Taylor; VoteBox