Search Results from beSpacific
Follow up to previous postings on e-voting, via Wired: "On Tuesday voters in Takoma Park, Maryland, got to try out a new, transparent voting system that lets voters go online to verify that their ballots got counted in the final...
Stateline.org asked two experts whether states are ready for the 2008 election? Todd Rokita, Indiana Secretary of State: "States will be ready when voters cast their ballot for our next U.S. president. This will be no small feat given the...
Press release: "The Election Technology Council today announced the release of industry guidelines outlining best practices for election officials to adopt in response to potential and perceived threats to electronic voting systems. In releasing the guidelines, David Beirne, Executive Director...
New York Times Magazine, January 6, 2008: Can You Count on Voting Machines? by Clive Thompson "In the last three election cycles, touch-screen machines have become one of the most mysterious and divisive elements in modern electoral politics. Introduced after...
Press release: "Ohio’s electronic voting systems have “critical security failures” which could impact the integrity of elections in the Buckeye State, according to a review of the systems commissioned by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. The Evaluation & Validation of...
Telecommunications: FCC Should Take Steps to Ensure Equal Access to Rulemaking Information, GAO-07-1046, September 6, 2007 Elections: Further Testing Could Provide Increased but Not Absolute Assurance That Voting Systems Did Not Cause Undervotes in Florida's 13th Congressional District, GAO-08-97T, October...
"Secretary of State Debra Bowen began her top-to-bottom review of the voting machines certified for use in California in March 2007. The review was designed to restore the public's confidence in the integrity of the electoral process and to ensure...
Letter from Florida Department of State Kurt S. Browning, Secretary of State to Diebold Election Systems, on the Report from the Security and Assurance in Information Technology (SAIT) Laboratory Regarding Diebold Optical Scan Voting System, July 31, 2007 Software Review...
Press release: "In a historic vote, the Florida House today unanimously passed CS/HB 537, already passed in the Senate, that provides almost all voters paper ballots in time for the 2008 Presidential election, and bans paperless DREs [direct-recording electronic voting...
Elections: All Levels of Government Are Needed to Address Electronic Voting System Challenges GAO-07-741T, April 18, 2007. "Voting systems are one facet of a multifaceted, year-round elections process that involves the interplay of people, processes, and technology, and includes all...
"The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) today heard testimony during a public meeting about the launch of its accreditation program for laboratories that test voting systems, including discussion about the first two labs that will be considered for accreditation. The...
House Rules Committee Hearing on The Hazards of Electronic Voting: Focus on the Machinery of Democracy, February 7, 2007. Opening Statement - The Honorable Dianne Feinstein - Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration: "Just last week, Florida Governor Charlie...
VoteTrust USA press release: "On Friday, January 26, 2007 the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released the Interim Accreditation Assessment report submitted to the EAC back in July of 2006. The report Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Interim Accreditation Independent Test Authorities...
U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery: "...the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a paper recommending that federal standards allow certification only for "software independent" (i.e. ones that create a paper trail) e-voting systems....
Press release: Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14), "who first highlighted the need for an investigation of a deal involving voting machine manufacturer Smartmatic is urging the Department of Treasury to make the results of the investigation public when they are finalized...
Christian Science Monitor: Election boosts trust in US voting systems - "Exit polls suggest that 88 percent of Americans felt confident in their voting device Tuesday." VotersUnite.org - Election Problem Log - 2006 (data can be sorted by state, type...
ComputerWorld - E-voting state by state: What you need to know "Computerworld appreciates the assistance of Electionline.org, a project of the Pew Charitable Trust, in the compilation of this project. We also read closely and highly recommend the joint survey...
Following up on this September 13, 2006 posting, Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine, the fallout from an array of problems experienced by more than ten thousand Maryland residents who tried to vote in the primaries on September...
Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine by Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, and Edward W. Felten Abstract - "This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software....
Press release: "New report shows 17 states at high risk for election results compromised due to electronic voting machine problems." "A new report released Thursday by Common Cause concludes that the push to use direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines...
5-11-06: Three-level security flaws found in Diebold touch-screens. Critical Security Alert: Diebold TSx and TS6 voting systems by Harri Hursti, for Black Box Voting, Inc. (12 pages, PDF) "Due to the nature of this report it is distributed in two...
Press release, Association for Computing Machinery, February 16, 2006: "Citing the danger of voter fraud and disenfranchisement from poorly implemented databases, a committee of experts commissioned by USACM released a report today making almost 100 recommendations to state and local...
Ohio's Diebold Debacle: New machines call election results into question, by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman. See also GAO Report: Continued Federal Efforts Needed to Improve Electronic Voting...
Today the members of the Commission on Federal Election Reform released the Final Commission Report: Building Confidence in U.S. Elections (113 pages, PDF). Individual sections of the report may be downloaded using this table of contents. Related links: Help America...
From EPIC: "The U.S. Election Assistance Commission held its third and final public hearing in Denver, Colorado on its proposed Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. EPIC's statement (13 pages, PDF) focused on the importance of election administration in creating reliable, secure,...
How Can We Ensure the Accuracy of Vote Counts?, Working Paper, July 4, 2005 (18 pages, PDF), by Kathy Dopp, MS Mathematics, University of Utah, President of USCountVotes' National Election Data Archive Project - ElectionArchive.org. Abstract: "Some methods which are...
"Documents obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the complete draft standards for voting technology. The standards, which were developed by a technical committee for the Election Assistance Commission, could determine how votes will be tabulated in...
Press release: Senators Clinton and Boxer, Representative Tubbs Jones And Others Unveil Major Election Reform Bill: "The Count Every Vote Act of 2005 (S. 450) will provide a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast in electronic voting machines...
Press release: Diebold Election Systems Submits Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail Printer for Federal Qualification - "Diebold Election Systems has completed design of a paper-based, voter-verifiable printer module that has been submitted for federal system qualification. The module enables a voter...
Government Computer News reports that in response to requests from 13 Democratic members of Congress, the agency has determined that an investigation of e-voting security issues associated with the 2004 election is now warranted. Links to PDF copies of the...
The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections by Michael Hout, Laura Mangels, Jennifer Carlson, and Rachel Best, with the assistance of the UC Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team. The link...
November 8, 2004 - Text of Follow-up Letter from Reps. Conyers, Nadler, Wexler, Scott, Watt and Holt to GAO Comptroller Walker Requesting Investigation of Voting Machines and Technologies Used in 2004 Election November 5, 2004 - Text of Letter from...
My experience as an Election Judge in Baltimore County on November 2, 2004 by Avi Rubin: "Voting machines that are vulnerable to wholesale rigging can still perform perfectly normally. It is possible that nobody exploited the vulnerabilities this time around,...
E-Voting News and Analysis, from the Experts: "Welcome to evoting-experts.com, a central source of up-to-date information and insight about e-voting, straight from some of the leading independent experts on computerized voting technology. Our distinguished panelists will post messages on the...
According to this AP article, e-voting manufacturers have submitted portions of their software code, on CD, to the National Software Reference Library (NSRL), exclusive of "their proprietary source code." This data is not available to the public. Previous postings on...
From FindLaw: WEXLER, ET AL. v. LEPORE, ET AL. (October 26, 2004) "The state of Florida will not be required to create a paper record from touch-screen voting machines. U.S. Representative Robert Wexler had argued that the touch-screen voting machines...
Press release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) capped its historic victory in a copyright abuse case against electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold today. The corporation agreed to pay $125,000 in damages and fees...Diebold is the first company to be held...
From Newsweek, via MSNBC, a state by state voters guide to election 2004. Information provided includes how each state voted in the 2000 election, a brief analysis/projection of the 2004 race (to be updated), number of electoral college votes, whether...
EFF press release: "In a landmark case, a California district court has determined that Diebold, Inc., a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, knowingly misrepresented that online commentators, including IndyMedia and two Swarthmore college students, had infringed the company's copyrights. This...
From the EFF: Electronic Voting Machine Quick Reference Guides: Includes an Information sheet and glossary (with tips for election observers) and a Location list of which voting machines are in your county. See also this testimony today, by EPIC, before...
Ready or Not (and Maybe Not), Electronic Voting Goes National "Just over six weeks before the nation holds the first general election in which touch-screen voting will play a major role, specialists agree that whatever the remaining questions about the...
News about this order, Schade v. State Board of Elections, from Federal Computer Week and the Washington Post, with my previous postings, Effort in Maryland to Prevent E-Voting Fails and Maryland Case Challenging Lack of E-Voting Paper Trail To Be...
Joseph P. Manck, County Administrative Judge, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, ruled on September 1 that the state may use e-voting machines from Diebold in the upcoming election, despite security issues documented by the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland. See...
Ten Things Elections Officials Can Do To Secure The Vote This November...
From the Campaign for Verifiable Voting, August 21, 2004: "...the case of Linda Schade et. al. vs. Linda Lamone et al. will be heard by Judge Manck in Anne Arundel Circuit Court in downtown Annapolis on Wednesday, August 25th through...
E-Vote Machine Certification Criticized See also electionline.org, "produced by the Election Reform Information Project, is the nation’s only non-partisan, non-advocacy website providing up-to-the-minute news and analysis on election reform," and previous beSpacific posts on e-voting....
"Lawyers representing eight Maryland citizens today filed a petition with the state supreme court seeking to decertify or fix Diebold voting machines that computer security experts have deemed insecure. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), working with over a dozen organizations...
Elections: Electronic Voting Offers Opportunities and Presents Challenges GAO-04-975T, July 20, 2004. "..direct recording electronic systems offer advantages in ease of use because they can have features that accommodate voters with various disabilities, and they protect against common voter errors,...
House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Inter-governmental Relations, and the Census hearing on "The Science of Electronic Voting Machine Technology: Accuracy, Reliability, and Security," July 20, 2004. Link to opening statement and testimony "An estimated 50...
Press release, July 16, 2004: Blackwell Halts Deployment Of Diebold Voting Machines For 2004: "Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell today halted deployment of Diebold Election Systems' electronic voting devices in Ohio for the 2004 General Election. The decision...
The press release and the decision (20 pages, PDF)....
Today the House Administration Committee held a hearing on Electronic Voting System Security. See this article on the hearing, which includes a statement fromTadayoshi Kohno of the UC San Diego Cryptography and Security Laboratory - "It is possible to have...
From the press release: "To increase security and improve public confidence in the voting process, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law (BC) today released a new report providing...
See today's Federal Register: "the U.S. Election Assistance Commission hereby establishes the Technical Guidelines Development Committee...to assist the Executive Director of the Commission in the development of the voluntary voting system guidelines.." Related news: E-Voting Problems Expected, "Even new law...
From the Campaign for Verifiable Voting: "The eight plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed a motion for a preliminary injunction today to preserve the integrity of the November 2004 elections and restore public trust and confidence in the system by which...
"Secretary of State Kevin Shelley Unveils Historic Paper Audit Trail Standards for E-Voting Machines - First-in-the-Nation Standards Establish Benchmark for Development, Testing of Paper Backups," June 15, 2004 [Link]. State of California Standards For Accessible Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail...
Commission head calls for more security for electronic voting Deja Vu At The Florida Polls? Scrubbing felons from voters rolls raises fresh concerns Feds want e-voting source code disclosed...
On June 6, "the Verified Voting Foundation...released a comparison analysis of the federal legislation that would require voter-verified paper ballots (VVPBs) on any electronic voting machines used in U.S. elections." [Link] The comparison of House of Representatives bills The comparison...
Press release: EFF Files Brief in Case Challenging the Use of Insecure Diebold E-Voting Machines Brief Exhibits Previous postings on e-voting issues....
David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, received a letter last week signed by a bipartisan group of 13 House members, requesting a formal investigation of e-voting security and reliability. The group stated the issue involved "a critical...
From the Miami Daily Business Review via law.com, this article adds fuel to the fire that is threatening to undermine public support for e-voting machines in the upcoming national election. After the recent high profile news about California's decision to...
Senate Bill 1723, "an urgency measure, would provide that no city or county may use any form of direct recording electronic device (DRE) as part of its voting system for the November 2, 2004, general election." See the bill analysis...
At a hearing on the "Use, Security, and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems" held today by the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Johns Hopkins University computer science professor and computer security expert Avi Rubin testified that the e-voting systems...
From the press release issued April 30 on the decertification of Diebold e-voting technology: "California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley today banned the use of touchscreen voting systems in four counties and decertified all touchscreen systems in California until security...
News reports today that the California Voting Systems and Procedures Panel will allow the November election to proceed using e-voting machines, but paper print-outs must be provided as well, and voters can choose to use only paper ballots. For reference,...
Four California counties ban e-voting technology due to security flaws, equipment malfunctions and questions about manufacturer business practices. Legislators Express Doubts About Intergrity of Electronic Voting Machines VerifiedVoting.Org Welcomes Unanimous Vote to Ban Diebold Paperless E-Voting Machines: "VerifiedVoting.org today welcomed...
As reported in today's Oakland Tribune (this article will be available free for 14 days after publication), executives of e-voting machine manufacturer Diebold admitted to, and apologized for, security flaws in products sold to the state of California that resulted...
From the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland: "A cross-partisan group of registered Maryland voters announced today they will be filing a lawsuit against the Maryland State Board of Elections and its Administrator, charging that the new Diebold AccuVote-TS electronic...
VoteHere, Inc., a manufacturer of e-voting technology, announced the release of the reference source code for its voting verification system. This release was a response to growing public concern about e-voting machine security issues, and is a first for this...
Doubts about e-voting drive bilateral push for paper backups. Related postings on e-voting security issues....
How E-Voting Threatens Democracy: Activitist Bev Harris has put e-voting security issues high on the agenda of states and localities throughout the country....
Rough Start For Touch-Screen Voting Machines Scattered glitches as e-voting gets biggest test Super Tuesday puts electronic voting to test...
Electronic Vote Faces Big Test of Its Security: "Millions of voters in 10 states will cast ballots on Tuesday in the single biggest test so far of new touchscreen voting machines that have been billed as one of the best...
Source: "California lawsuit: Jim March, Bev Harris, and California citizens suit seeks to prohibit Diebold from engaging in unfair business practices, and seeks restitution. Case no. 04CS00176, Superior Court of the State of California, Sacramento County. Related postings on e-voting...
From GovExec.com: "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will have to curtail its work on cybersecurity, terminate all its work with a law designed to improve the elections process and go to month-to-month funding for manufacturing programs because...
"VerifiedVoting.org champions transparent, reliable, and publicly verifiable elections in the United States." The site includes links to federal legislation on e-voting, voting technologies that provide paper audit trails, announcements on public meetings concerning e-voting security, news from around the web,...
"California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Thursday announced measures to improve election security in the wake of a report describing how votes can be easily manipulated by hacking into an electronic voting system used across California." [Link]...
The Pentagon has terminated its Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE), "a project aimed at providing Uniformed Services members and overseas citizens the ability to register, vote and check their status throughout the absentee voting process." [Link] As reported...
The Maryland Department of Legislative Services hired RABA Technologies to run their recently purchased Diebold touch screen e-voting system through an extensive testing program designed to simulate a range of possible attacks by hackers. The result is a 25 page...
From ElectionOnline.org, a press release and the link to a new report, Election Reform 2004 - What's Changed, What Hasn't and Why (pdf, 72 pages). "A new report finds many of the election problems revealed in Florida and elsewhere during...
A Security Analysis of the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE), January 20, 2004: "This report is a review and critique of computer and communication security issues in the SERVE voting system (Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment), an...
More news on problems with Diebold's e-voting technology, this time in California, where an audit by the California Voter Foundation (CVF) ascertained that the company "had installed uncertified versions of software or firmware in all 17 counties it services" in...
This afternoon AP reported that VoteHere Inc., a company that provides "secure e-voting technology," was the victim of hackers some months ago. Internal documents and blue prints were stolen, and the case is under investigation by the FBI. VoteHere contends...
E-voting machine manufacturer Diebold Inc. is in the news again, this time in connection with possible California state election law violations, according their Secretary of State, as determined by an auditors report that revealed the use of unapproved software in...
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) announced her intention to introduce legislation in early 2004 to ensure that every vote counts, by requiring that e-voting machine manufacturers provide built-in, not expensive add-on, paper records to verify the accuracy and security of the...
Dean Heller, Nevada Secretary of State, issued a news release December 10 on his decision to purchase Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines from Sequoia Voting Systems, and to require the inclusion of "voter verifiable receipt" technology to accompany each...
Voting-Machine Makers To Fight Security Criticism From ZDNet: "As electronic voting machines prepare to go to the polls in large numbers, major vendors are collaborating to shore up support for them." [Link] See the Information Technology Association of America Election...
Dr. Avi Rubin of the Johns Hopkins' Information Security Institute gave the keynote today, Electronic Voting: A case study of how closed systems fail, at the Secure Trusted Operating System Consortium Symposium underway at George Washington University. Dr. Rubin's research...
From the EFF: Diebold Backs Down, Won't Sue on Publication of Electronic Voting Machine Flaws: "Voting machine company Diebold Systems, Inc., agreed today in federal court not to sue or send any further legal threats to anyone who publishes their...
As a follow-up to my posting, E-Voting Machine Co. Docs. on Product Flaws Published on Web, this evening an EFF press release announced that Judge Jeremy Foley, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California scheduled a meeting of the parties,...
Judge Jeremy Foley, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, will rule in the next several weeks on whether internal documents stolen from Diebold Inc., and posted to or linked from a range of personal, non-profit and university websites, must...
An EFF advisory addresses a legal challenge (initiated by two Swarthmore students, an ISP and a privacy group) in response to cease and desist orders issued by an electronic voting machine manufacturer. These orders were in response to the publication...
From Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, San Mateo County, California, a link to his new blog, Election Central, "The Web's 1st Blog on Verified Voting, Election Reform & Democracy." [via Politechbot.com] From the EFF, see also Flawed...
The International Herald Tribune reports that "More than 1.5 million Britons will have a chance to vote Thursday in 17 local elections using electronic voting systems that computer security experts on both sides of the Atlantic say are fraught with...