Maryland Registered Voters' Opinions about …

                     Maryland Registered Voters' Opinions about
                          Voting and Voting Technologies

                   Prepared for the Maryland State Board of Elections

               by the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research
                       University of Maryland, Baltimore County

                                  Executive Summary

        This survey of registered voters in Maryland found that voters have a high level of
confidence in Maryland's touch screen voting system. Most voters surveyed agreed that
the current voting system was easy to use (99 percent), made voting quicker (85 percent),
and recorded and counted the votes accurately (82 percent). Voters also felt that, even
given the controversy around them, touch screen systems are reliable (73 percent), can be
trusted (64 percent), accurately record and count votes (73 percent) and that security
measures prevent tampering or hacking (53 percent). Seven in ten (70 percent)
respondents agreed that that Maryland has done all it could to prevent fraud or tampering.

        While the majority of respondents voiced confidence in the current voting system,
they expressed concerns about external threats to the system. Forty-seven percent agreed
that touch screen systems could be tampered with and hacked into, while over half of
respondents (55 percent) said they believed that that the systems could be corrupted by
malicious software programming.

        The telephone survey, requested by the State Board of Elections, asked 800
registered voters who voted in the 2004 general election in Maryland their opinions about
a series of issues around voting and voting technologies in the state. The survey had a
margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.

       The survey found that Maryland's registered voters are computer-literate, with 81
percent reporting that they use computers daily or several times a week. Of those, 85
percent use the Internet daily or several times a week. While a large majority of
respondents (70 percent) said they have a high level of trust in computers, only 44
percent of Maryland voters have a high level of trust in government.

        The use of alternatives to touch screen voting systems, as well as the introduction
of vote verification systems, has been the subject of debate in Maryland and other states.
Nevertheless, fewer than half (45 percent) of respondents said they had heard or read
anything about touch screen systems within the past year, with 49 percent of those
reporting they heard positive things and 48 percent reporting they heard negative things.
Further, only one in five (23 percent) of registered voters said they had heard or read
anything about people calling for different voting technologies to be added to or
substituted for Maryland's touch screen voting system.
        Voters were also unfamiliar with the concept of a paper trail (i.e., a system that
produces a paper record or receipt that the voter can use to confirm his vote), one of the
vote verification systems under discussion in Maryland. Of the 23 percent of voters who
had heard or read about different voting technologies to be added to or substituted for
Maryland's touch screen voting system, only 35 percent (about 8 percent of all voters
sampled) responded that the primary thing that they had heard or read about involved a
paper trail.

        When the entire sample was asked what paper trail meant, nearly one in four (38
percent) said that they did not know. Only about 6 percent correctly indicated that paper
trail means that a voter views a paper record of his vote behind a glass screen to verify
the vote. Notwithstanding the confusion about the meaning of a paper trail, 69 percent
said that voters should be able to confirm their votes through paper records or receipts.

        The results of this survey indicate that there is no crisis of confidence among
voters about Maryland's touch screen voting system as it is currently implemented. At the
same time, voters are concerned about security of the system, but unfamiliar with one of
the vote verification methods under discussion (paper trail). Given voter concerns, SBE
should work with local boards of elections and interested groups to inform and educate
the public about what is being done to secure the touch screen voting system used in
Maryland from hacking, malicious programming and acts that might compromise
elections.