On Safe and Usable Chatbots for Promoting Voter Participation

TL;DR

This paper presents a personalized, transparent chatbot system designed to promote voter participation among vulnerable groups, addressing concerns about misinformation and hacking while enhancing election information accessibility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel chatbot system that personalizes official election information for vulnerable voters, with prototype implementation and initial focus group evaluation.

Findings

Prototype effectively delivers personalized election info

Focus group shows increased voter engagement

System addresses misinformation concerns

Abstract

Chatbots, or bots for short, are multi-modal collaborative assistants that can help people complete useful tasks. Usually, when chatbots are referenced in connection with elections, they often draw negative reactions due to the fear of mis-information and hacking. Instead, in this paper, we explore how chatbots may be used to promote voter participation in vulnerable segments of society like senior citizens and first-time voters. In particular, we build a system that amplifies official information while personalizing it to users' unique needs transparently. We discuss its design, build prototypes with frequently asked questions (FAQ) election information for two US states that are low on an ease-of-voting scale, and report on its initial evaluation in a focus group. Our approach can be a win-win for voters, election agencies trying to fulfill their mandate and democracy at large.