Polling Place Support Tool; User Interface to Plan and Run Polling Places

Abstract

We describe a scenario and enabling system to provide assistance to election officers in several ways. The new user interface approach supports polling place design, training, operations, problem solving, and auditing. It presents a spatial/graphical user interface for interacting with representations of voting space, furniture, and equipment layout, to assist election officers in better fulfilling polling place administrative activities before, during, and after the election. The application, Polling Place Support Tool, is designed to improve on the current paper-based checklists an election officer uses to remember the different activities he or she has to perform. The RAV Polling Place Support Tool is a simulation that allows poll workers and officials to explore the possibilities for optimizing the design of an accessible and compliant polling place, auditing its use and intervening in to solve problems as they arise.