Securing Digital Democracy

I really enjoyed taking this course. It provided an in-depth look at the different systems used for voting in various states and countries, and what their various weaknesses are. Particularly in today's political sphere, when talk of election fraud is common on both sides, it was interesting to learn the specifics. I feel much better educated on the topic now, and I truly enjoyed many of the teacher's anecdotes about his many involvements in election security. Thanks to the things I learned in this course, I also feel very well-equipped to understand and advocate for ways that the voting system in my state could be improved--I had previously thought Oregon's vote-by-mail system was pretty foolproof, but this course showed me otherwise! All in all, I would highly recommend this course to anyone that has an interest in the subject material. Fascinating and enjoyable all around.

Professor Halderman's course on voting security and history was quite interesting and when I took it during the 2012 election season is was especially significant since talk of voter fraud was common. The course consists of 40 video lectures and 5 quizzes. The course material itself wasn't difficult and while there was a companion book that was recommended you could do well with just the materials from the video. The level of the course was basic and did not really go into the technical details of the voting systems and subsequent attempts at breaking them. This isn't a criticism because to be honest I would have found the course boring if it had been presented that way.

My biggest complaint with the course is related specifically to the video lectures. Professor Halderman frequently interrupts himself with a number of "umms" which can be quite distracting. The content of what he is saying is fine but I think that for subsequent offerings he would do well to redo the videos to improve the flow and pacing. Once you become aware of just how many "umms" there are in a video (sorry!) it becomes even more distracting. Some students were upset by this much more than I think was necessary, at least from what I gathered by their posts in the forums.