You are being asked to participate in a research study. The purpose of this study is to research the relationship between voter perception of trust and security in the election system and acceptance and use of this system in the US. Your participation in this study is voluntary and there is no penalty for choosing not to participate in this study and your relationship with the researchers will not be affected. You may choose to withdraw from participation in this study at any time without any consequences.

Your participation will take approximately 10-15 minutes. Being a participant in this study, you will be expected to complete a 33-question survey relating to different components of the US election system including 10 demographic questions. This study will use approximately 100-200 individuals for the pilot study and 390-1,900 individuals for the full study. Your information will not be distributed for future research studies. Your identity will remain anonymous through your participation as we will not collect any personal identifiable information to include IP addresses.

As this is an online study, the survey and website uses SSL encryption as well as all survey results will be encrypted. Online transmissions do have the potential for security breaches. Email and the internet are not 100% secure although all reasonable measures have been taken to protect your identity and responses. Therefore, there is a potential risk for unauthorized access to the collected data. Other potential risks associated with participation in this study include distress and depression.

The potential benefits of participating in this study include the identification of potential solutions to help increase trust and security in the election system in the United States. For any questions related to this study or your participation in the study, you can visit https://www.kaufmanthesis.com or contact Jonathan Kaufman at [email protected] or (443) 356-6366. For any injury relating to this study, please contact the Christopher Newport University Institutional Review Board at [email protected] or by phone at (757) 594-8299 as well as Jonathan Kaufman at [email protected]. To reiterate, you can terminate your participation in this study at any time.