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Canadian Citizens' Acceptance of Voting Technologies by Alex Canadian Citizens’ Acceptance of Voting Technologies by Alex Mesley A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Human-Computer Interaction Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario Abstract Voting technologies are becoming more pervasive around the world in a bid to increase convenience, accessibility, boost voter turnout, minimize human error and reduce time before results are available. While some countries have instituted or completed trials of different methods of electronic voting, Canada has kept use of voting technologies to limited municipal and provincial elections. This study included an online questionnaire and interviews to gain a better understanding of Canadians’ perspectives on voting technologies. From the results, we see that security concerns are the major factor driving this reluctance, but, Canadians have a need and a desire for more convenience and accessibility in their voting. While voters are concerned about security, they trust their government to ensure secure voting methods. Keywords: voting technology, online voting, acceptability of technology, technology acceptance model, Focus: determining factors required in acceptability of voting technologies amongst Canadians for use in governmental elections. i Acknowledgements I would like to thank: Professor Biddle for taking me on late in the game. Thank you for challenging me, supporting me, answering my emails at all hours of the day, and making this the best work possible. My parents for pushing me in my education and celebrating my victories with pride and a lot of enthusiasm. You continued to encourage me when I struggled to find motivation of my own. Alex, for supporting me through each moment of despair (of which there were many), with a hug or glass of wine at the ready. Thank you for putting up with the sticky notes scattered throughout the house, the papers covering every surface, and the late-night glow from my iPad while I tried to learn stats when you were trying to sleep. And Donna, who made this adventure a million times better. The support, expertise, and friendship you offered have been invaluable to me. I’m so glad we had each other as company in this process. ii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... i Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Motivation ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Brief Overview of Related Work ........................................................................................................ 2 1.3 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Statement of Contribution ................................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Thesis Organization ............................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 2: Alternative Voting Around the World ........................................................................................ 5 2.2 Voting Technologies ........................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Use of Voting Technologies Around the World ................................................................................. 7 2.3.1 Estonia .......................................................................................................................................... 7 2.3.2 United Kingdom ......................................................................................................................... 10 2.3.3 United States of America ........................................................................................................... 11 2.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 3: Model Design ............................................................................................................................ 14 3.1 The Canadian Experience ................................................................................................................. 14 3.1.1 Canadian Law ............................................................................................................................ 14 3.1.2 Canada ........................................................................................................................................ 14 3.2 Security ............................................................................................................................................. 26 3.3 Accessibility ...................................................................................................................................... 27 3.4 Organizing Reoccurring Themes ...................................................................................................... 29 3.5 Technology Acceptance Model ........................................................................................................ 30 3.6 Trustworthiness ................................................................................................................................. 31 3.7 CIA Triad .......................................................................................................................................... 32 3.8 Building the Model ........................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 4: Study ......................................................................................................................................... 39 4.1 Participants ........................................................................................................................................ 39 4.4.1 TurkPrime .................................................................................................................................. 39 4.2 Design ............................................................................................................................................... 40 4.2.1 Online Questionnaire ................................................................................................................. 40 4.2.2 Hypotheses ................................................................................................................................. 41 iii 4.3 Material ............................................................................................................................................. 42 4.3.1 Limesurvey ................................................................................................................................ 42 4.4 Procedure .......................................................................................................................................... 44 4.4.3 In-person Questionnaire and Interview ...................................................................................... 44 5.1 Quantitative Results .............................................................................................................................. 46 5.1.2 Participants ..................................................................................................................................... 46 5.1.3 Methods of Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 47 5.2 Qualitative Results ................................................................................................................................ 55 5.2.1 Participants ..................................................................................................................................... 55 5.2.2 Thematic Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 55 5.2.3 Themes ....................................................................................................................................... 64 5.2.3 Unifying Thematic Theory ......................................................................................................... 66 5.3 Results as Relate to Model ............................................................................................................ 66 Chapter 6: Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 69 6.1 RQ1: What atttudes and concerns do Canadians have about voting technologies? .......................... 69 6.2 RQ2: What factors drive Canadians to accept a voting technology? ................................................ 70 6.3 RQ3: What are major barriers to acceptance for voting technologies? ............................................. 71 6.4 Security ............................................................................................................................................. 71 6.5 Unifying Thematic
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