Title: A medium-scale trial of Handivote

Authors: Tsvetelina Valcheva; Karen Renaud; Paul Cockshott

Addresses: School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, G12 8RZ, UK ' School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, G12 8RZ, UK ' School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, G12 8RZ, UK

Abstract: Handivote is an electronic voting system utilising mobile phones and short text messages. Thus, far we have only conducted very limited trials within our own school. In this paper, we report on a medium scale trial carried out in the Kelvinside district of Glasgow. It was used by a local community group to assess support vs. opposition to a planned building development on a meadow. We describe the procedures followed to issue voting credentials, the information given to voters, and the telecommunications and computing infrastructure used to conduct the vote. We describe the user interface made available to the person or groups setting up the poll, and explain how the final results are presented to the public. We detail the mechanisms available to facilitate voter scrutiny to ensure integrity of the vote. A brief discussion of the cost of this scheme, in terms of money and labour, will also be included.

Keywords: SMS voting; short message service; Handivote; field test; accessibility; opinion polls; experience report; electronic voting; e-voting; online voting; mobile phones; cell phones; short text messaging; Glasgow; Scotland; local community groups; building development; voting credentials; telecommunications infrastructure; computing infrastructure; user interface; voter scrutiny; labour costs; financial costs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEG.2016.078119

International Journal of Electronic Governance, 2016 Vol.8 No.2, pp.102 - 118

Received: 10 Feb 2015
Accepted: 15 May 2015
Published online: 03 Aug 2016 *

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