Effects of Multiple Races and Header Highlighting on Undervotes in the 2006 Sarasota General Election: A Usability Study and Cognitive Modeling Assessment

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dc.contributor.advisorByrne, Michael D.en_US
dc.creatorGreene, Kristen K.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-03-08T00:34:15Zen_US
dc.date.available2013-03-08T00:34:15Zen_US
dc.date.issued2011en_US
dc.description.abstractLarge-scale voting usability problems have changed the outcomes of several recent elections. The 2006 election in Sarasota County, Florida was one such incident, where the number of votes lost was nearly 50 times greater than the margin of victory for the US Representative race. Multiple hypotheses were proposed to explain this incident, with prevailing theories focused on malicious software, touchscreen miscalibration or poor ballot design, Study I aimed to empirically determine whether Sarasota voters unintentionally skipped the critical US Representative race due to poor ballot design. The Sarasota ballot was replicated initially, then header highlighting and number of races presented on the first screen were manipulated. While the presentation of multiple races had a significant effect on undervotes in the US Representative race, header highlighting did not. Nearly 20% of all voters (27 of 137) skipped the race their first time on that screen, an even greater undervote rate than that originally seen in Sarasota. In conjunction with other research, Study I results strongly suggests that the 2006 Sarasota election was almost certainly a human factors problem. A cognitive model of human voters was developed based on Study I data. Model predictions were then compared with behavioral data from Study 2, in which participants voted on a replica of the Charlotte County, Florida 2006 ballot.en_US
dc.format.extent107 p.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoTHESIS PSYCH. 2011 GREENEen_US
dc.identifier.citationGreene, Kristen K.. "Effects of Multiple Races and Header Highlighting on Undervotes in the 2006 Sarasota General Election: A Usability Study and Cognitive Modeling Assessment." (2011) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/70254">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/70254</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.digitalGreeneKen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/70254en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectSocial sciencesen_US
dc.subjectPsychologyen_US
dc.subjectSarasotaen_US
dc.subjectHuman factorsen_US
dc.subjectVotingen_US
dc.subject2006 Sarasota General Electionen_US
dc.subjectFloridaen_US
dc.subjectBallot designen_US
dc.subjectUndervotesen_US
dc.subjectUsability studyen_US
dc.subjectHeader highlightingen_US
dc.subjectBehavioral psychologyen_US
dc.subjectPolitical scienceen_US
dc.subjectCognitive psychologyen_US
dc.titleEffects of Multiple Races and Header Highlighting on Undervotes in the 2006 Sarasota General Election: A Usability Study and Cognitive Modeling Assessmenten_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentPsychologyen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineSocial Sciencesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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