An Ethical Method for Developing Electronic Voting Systems

Recently there has been widespread concern about the use of electronic voting machines to record votes in elections. Although discussions on this technology have taken place in several countries, this paper will focus on the issues raised in the context of the USA presidential elections in 2000 and 2004. These concerns will be considered in the light of practices in Australia. This paper describes these areas of concern, and comments on some of the proposals coming from the USA, described as ?best practices?, to remedy the problems of voting technology and electoral processes. The paper argues that the processes used to develop voting systems should also be considered, and that a method called Value Sensitive Design (VSD) should be used as part of the development activities. This is to ensure that human values are identified and incorporated in the design, and trust is engendered in the systems and in those who develop them.