Verified Voting Blog: Verified Voting Letter to Tennessee State Senators

We respectfully urge you to vote No on House Bill 614, which seeks to delay implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act and fatally weaken its provision for manual post-election audits of electronic vote tallies. HB 614 is on the Senate’s calendar for Tuesday January 12, 2010. Rejection of the bill is warranted based on the determination of the Chancery Court regarding the TVCA and its requirements for federal certification of voting systems, and on the State’s still un-met need for verifiable ballots and hand-counted audits of electronic vote tallies.

In November 2009, the Chancery Court of Davidson County, after receiving information from voting technology experts, corrected the assumption that the TVCA required new voting systems to be certified by the United States Election Assistance Commission (the EAC) to the 2005 version of the Federal voluntary voting system guidelines. The Court issued a Conclusion of Law noting the TVCA allows voting systems to be certified by the EAC to either the 2002 voting system standards or the 2005 guidelines, and ordered the State Elections Division to proceed with implementation without delay.

The Voting News Daily: Delayed – Tennessee paper ballot law, GA SOS hopeful blasts state undercounts

The US Dept of Justice readies lawsuit to undo voting machine merger…Libertarian candidate for Georgia SOS blasts Diebold machines and state-wide vote undercounts…Votes and Doubts in Detroit….Bill to Delay Tennessee Voter Confidence Act until 2012 Passes……Please check out the “Universal” Ballot Counter by Mitch Trachtenberg…For sale on Internet – Ukraine’s election votes… All this and…

The Voting News Daily: Just say no to Internet Voting, DoJ Voting Rights Fight Reboots, Absentee voting growth market for fraud?

DoJ Voting Rights Fight Reboots…LTE: Just say no to Internet Voting – “as a programmer, I must caution you. Not only do programmers make mistakes, some of them can be bought.” Lisa Pease, electronic voting activist…Hawaii lacks funds to send Rep. to Congress…“Absentee voting is the new growth market for election fraud,” said Richard Hayes-Phillips…

Verified Voting Blog: Justice Department Seeks to Block Merger of Voting Machine Vendors

According to an article in the New York Post a lawsuit is expected to be filed by the Department of Justice that would seek to block the already-completed merger of the nation’s two largest voting-machine makers, Election Systems & Software (ES&S) and Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems). The article cites “a person close to the situation” that the DoJ lawsuit, “if successful, would effectively undo the merger of Diebold’s Premier Elections Solutions with Election Systems & Software, a $5 million deal completed in September.”

Verified Voting Blog: Monopoly, ES&S, and Nassau County

There was lots of reporting last week about the decision to award New York City’s huge voting machine contract to the ES&S, but the really interesting story slipped by nearly unnoticed – Nassau County, home to nearly 1 million registered voters, announced they were abandoning their recently purchased Dominion ImageCast machines for ES&S systems. This announcement came as quite a surprise because Nassau County has been using the Dominion machines for accessible voting in all polling places since 2008, as well as spent time and money training poll workers in the use of the new systems. So how is it that ES&S managed to snatch away Nassau County, in terms of voting system sales the second largest prize in New York State, from the much smaller Dominion? The answer is a cautionary tale about the power of a near monopoly to force smaller competitors out of the market.

ES&S has long been one of a handful of voting machine companies dominating the United States market. But recently, with Sequoia Voting Systems struggling financially, and the absorption of Diebold into ES&S (a move opposed by many), the company already has a near-stranglehold on providing voting systems and services to election officials. In New York State however, ES&S faces a small competitor from just across Lake Ontario in Canada, Dominion Voting. Dominion designed and built the ImageCast, a new scanner and accessible ballot marker combination system that many County Boards of Elections around the state, including Nassau, liked enough to order and use in 2008 and 2009 [Note – initially Dominion partnered with Sequoia to bring the ImageCast to New York, but Sequoia later pulled out and turned the contract over to Dominion]. Indeed, even if New York City chose the ES&S DS200 scanner, a decision finally made this week, little upstart Dominion would still have provided over half of the Empire State’s huge number of voting machines! But big companies like Wal-Mart and ES&S don’t stand around idly letting small competitors take what they see as their market share. And the way they do it is by being big enough to offer customers deals that are simply too good to pass up. And that’s exactly what ES&S did in Nassau County.

The Voting News Daily: Vote fixing charges in Clay Co. KY, Washington ends ban on felon voting

Federal Prosecutors: Kentucky Officials Manipulated Clay County Elections for Decades …Barrow seeks investigation into handling of Detroit election…Nassau (NY) switches vote-machine contractors… 9th Circuit throws out Wash. ban on felon voting…New Year’s resolution: Register to vote (or update your registration)…. Brad Friedman of Bradblog visits former Diebold now ES&S HQ in Texas and finds that…

The Voting News Daily: Vote-machine lobbyist was in ‘rig’ trouble, NY City giving up levers, Same Day Registration pros and cons

In New York we learn that one vendor’s lobbyist was involved in a vote rigging scandal. Meanwhile one vendor claims they will provide more jobs than the other vendor…. Massachusetts weighs the pros and cons of same day registration….Oregon is considering adopting online voter registration.. All this and more in today’s voting news below… CA:…

The Voting News Daily: Florida's rules leave too many voteless, End Judicial selection by election? Role of Twitter in Iran 2008 election

Florida rules leave too many voteless. FL’s “no match no vote” rule allows clerical errors to disenfranchise voters….Open source voting machines—an opportunity for Hawaii…Want to know about problems with Voting By Mail?…Money in politics? Congressional candidates raised $1.42 BILLION IN 2007-2008…The Role of Twitter in the Iran Elections of 2009 All this and more in…

The Voting News Daily: Maryland eyes paper voting, OH considers voting bill, MO considers early voting

“Bad Business” says Florida paper about ES&S/Diebold voting machine monopoly…New York voter surprised to hear that election clerk declared him deceased….In Maryland “Will state pull the plug on new voting machines?”…Legislation filed for early voting in Missouri, 30 other states already have early voting…Ohio legislators consider Senate Bill 8 which would impact voter registration, early…

The Voting News Daily: Diebold $100M e-voting contract in Brazil, An unhealthy monopoly, Internet voting quagmire

Correction: Headline on Dec 23 should have said investigation into DETROIT’s election, not Chicago. We corrected that headline here. Diebold’s sale to ES&S an “Unhealthy Monopoly”and meanwhile Diebold still selling voting machines – in Brazil? Internet voting: Wood Co. WV has volunteered to test voting project that “would allow overseas, military absentee voting online”. Meanwhile…

The Voting News Daily: Detroit candidate calls for election investigation, Fixing our broken democracy, ACORN cleared again

Former Mayoral Candidate Tom Barrow called for official review of the Nov 3 mayoral election “when he discovered empty ballot boxes and numerous ballot boxes with security seals which been breached, disqualifying tens of thousands of votes …from being recountable… ‘computer tapes’, normally summarizing election results at the closing of the polls, had in fact…

Verified Voting Blog: Candice Hoke Comments to the FCC on Internet Voting

In her response to an FCC’s question about what can we learn from pilot projects that have tested online voting, Verified Voting Foundation Board of Advisors member Candice Hoke observed that none of the domestic internet voting pilot projects have been properly structured to test for and approximate the risks that would be posed to domestic US elections. Specifically, she noted that these pilots are especially remiss in conceptualizing the risks for elections to Federal and Statewide office, where the fiscal control over billions of dollars is concerned, and the direction of military powers and foreign policy/aid.

Hoke continued: “The Internet voting pilot programs were structured by for-profit vendors, who also reported on their “success” without any independent evaluation and transparency on some critical dimensions. In Hawai’i, the project did report a dramatic drop in the reported rate of voter participation. The pilot, however, did not include any structures by which an assessment could be conducted of whether technical attacks had occurred to intercept, modify or otherwise block voted ballots from reaching the election processing location. Nor did it offer any auditing assessments that the ballots as tabulated matched the ballots as cast by voters. Thus, no conclusions can be drawn about the pilot’s success, and it bears little relation to a Federal or Statewide election context.

The Voting News Daily: Military Bases to aid voter registration, One company to count 70% of US votes

Big news: The Department of Defense has agreed to formally designate all military installation voting assistance offices as official “voter registration agencies”. The move “will provide these brave Americans and their families with ‘motor voter’-style registration assistance on military installations, where they spend most of their time,” Cornyn said. Schumer called the change “a bold…

The Voting News Daily: Madison Co KY gets paper ballots, Hawaii ponders mail-in special election, IL no secret ballot? Voting News wants to hear from you

Too broke to hold elections? Hawaii considers vote by mail for upcoming special election. New Mexico’s Secretary of State says will have to borrow money to hold upcoming primary…More concern in Illinois about special state law that requires undervote notification- the machines make an audible noise if a voter leaves certain contests blank….Madison KY switches…

The Voting News Daily: NY certifies voting machines, OH touchscreen flaws, Aspen election lampooned, I-voting squibs

Lampooned: Aspen’s chronic election problems via YouTube video. The portrayal of the ballot box just outside the mayor’s office during “early early” voting was outrageous yet true…Calibration issues with Montgomery County Ohio Diebold touchscreens but the vendor will “fix” them for free…No machines, no money, no state election director: .Hawaii can’t afford a special election…NH’s…

The Voting News Daily: National Expert warns FCC of internet voting dangers, Vendor put on EAC advisory panel, Tennessee stall n crawl

In answer to the question “With existing technology, is it possible to enable and ensure safe and secure voting online today?”, Verified Voting responded, “in a word, no.” It is likely that no one in the country has studied the subject of internet voting more intensely than David Jefferson, senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National…

Verified Voting Blog: Comments to the FCC on Internet Voting

It is likely that no one in the country has studied the subject of internet voting more intensely than David Jefferson, senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Part of his job is to help devise strategies to defend against the relentless attacks we see every hour of every day against U.S. networks, both government and corporate, from sources ranging from self aggrandizing students to foreign intelligence and cyber warfare agencies. He has also been deeply involved in voting and election security for over a decade as a voting technology advisor to five successive Secretaries of State in California, and is a coauthor of most of the best known peer-reviewed scientific publication on Internet voting, the SERVE Security Report.

[pullquote align=”left”]“The integrity of a general election is as important as the integrity of many of our national defense secrets.[/pullquote]In his comments to the FCC, Jefferson emphasizes that election security is an aspect of U.S. national security. He observes that, “few people have any idea how tiny is the fraction of votes that, if selectively lost or switched, could swing a presidential election, or swing the balance of power in a house of Congress. The controversial 2000 presidential election that was decided by a few hundred votes in one state was only the most extreme object lesson, but other elections such as the recent Minnesota senatorial election, have been as close. This is all the more true in these times in which the electorate is nearly evenly divided on several key national issues. It is vital that we protect the security of every vote, or the legitimacy of our government will be rightly called into question–a situation that is very damaging in a democracy.”

Verified Voting Blog: Verified Voting Comments to FCC on Internet Voting

In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as part of its development of a National Broadband Plan, to include “a plan for the use of broadband infrastructure and services in advancing …civic participation.” On December 10, 2010 the Federal Communications Commission issued a request for public comments “…on how broadband can help to bring democratic processes—including elections, public hearings and town hall meetings—into the digital age…” Verified Voting, in submitted comments, answered the question – “With existing technology, is it possible to enable and ensure safe and secure voting online today?”, simply – “In a word, no.” As a recent report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) indicates, “…The security challenges associated with e-mail return of voted ballots are difficult to overcome using technology widely deployed today.” And “…Technology that is widely deployed today is not able to mitigate many of the threats to casting ballots via the web.”

Despite the short window allowed for public comment, numerous organizations and individuals, including Verified Voting submitted comments. Much of Verified Voting’s commentary was informed by the “Computer Technologists’ Statement on Internet Voting”, published last year and signed by dozens of leading technology professionals and computer security experts. This post is the first in a series that will highlight the commentary submitted to the FCC on the issue of the role of the internet in the electoral process. In answer to the question “With existing technology, is it possible to enable and ensure safe and secure voting online today?”, Verified Voting responded, “in a word, no.”

The Voting News Daily: A NO vote on certifying NY’s voting machines,TX polling place burglary, UT troops internet voting guinea pigs?

Still think internet voting is a great idea? The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has set up a bi-partisan taskforce on cybersecurity to evaluate potential online threats and provide recommendations for action to the US intelligence community….Although the US is struggling to prevent online threats, there’s a 50 state whack-a-mole agenda to promote internet voting/non…

Verified Voting Blog: Polling Place Burglary Raises Specter of Fraud

The burglary at one of Houston’s early voting locations (“Computers stolen at early polling location; Ballot board to check electronic voting machines for tampering,” Page B2, Tuesday) raises the specter of election fraud. Some computers were stolen, and as far as we know, the voting machines stored at Hester House were untouched. But if the burglars wanted to tamper with the election outcome, what could they have accomplished? In 2007, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen put together a team to conduct a security analysis of the state’s electronic voting systems. I was part of the team analyzing the Hart InterCivic voting system — the same type we use here in Harris County. Our report concluded that the Hart system has a wide variety of security flaws and that it can be attacked in a manner that makes it hard to detect and correct. We further concluded that these attacks can be carried out by a single individual without extensive effort and without long-term access to the equipment. Our results were corroborated by a follow-up study conducted by the Ohio secretary of state.

Did the Houston burglars tamper with the voting machines? I hope not. Could they have tampered with the voting machines? Absolutely. Could we determine if tampering had occurred? Only if we got lucky and found clearly incriminating evidence, such as the burglar’s fingerprints near the connectors on the backs of the voting machines.

Verified Voting Blog: My Vote on NY Voting Machine Certification

During the week of December 7, 2009, the New York State Citizen Election Modernization Advisory Committee met and reviewed certification test data results from the state’s testing program, and to vote on recommending approval of the two voting systems to the four Commissioners of the State Board of Election. The Commissioners will vote on final certification at their December 15, 2009 meeting. On December 10, 2009, the Advisory Committee approved recommendation by a vote of 10 For and 1 Against. I was the only vote opposing the recommendation. Below is the statement I made prior to the committee vote.

I believe in New York State’s certification process. It is rightfully called the best in the nation. We have required vendors to conform to a higher standard than ever before, we have conducted extensive testing with independent oversight, and as a result we have a huge trove of data upon which we can base our decision on whether these new voting systems are ready to be certified. Just the fact that we even have this substantial set of test results against a large number of very specific standards is a credit to New York’s process. Arguably, we have more data available to us about these systems than has ever been made available to a public body such this Advisory Committee before. It is because of this comprehensive approach that we can even be talking about some of the test findings, which never would have been revealed in a typical voting system certification program.

The Voting News Daily: Next Hawaii election a slow-moving train wreck? MOVE to expedite troop ballots free, Election Center ponders e-voting

The Election Center, a group that promoted the use of paperless voting, will meet Jan 7 & 8 to discuss voter reg, provisional ballots, and “the continued push to eliminate or restrict use of DREs” (The Election Center is a group that advises election officials while accepting donations from voting vendors)…Voter Action letter to Senate…