Verified Voting Blog: The meaning of Alex Halderman’s successful attack on the DC Internet voting system

University of Michigan Prof. Alex Halderman has now released some details about his successful attack on the District of Columbia’s proposed Internet voting system which has been under test for the last week. (See www.freedom-to-tinker.com.) It is now clear that Halderman and his team were able to completely subvert the entire DC Internet voting system remotely, gaining complete control over it and substituting fake votes of their choice for the votes that were actually cast by the test voters. What is worse, they did so without the officials even noticing for several days. Let there be no mistake about it: this is a major achievement, and supports in every detail the warnings that security community have been giving about Internet voting for over a decade now. After this there can be no doubt that the burden of proof in the argument over the security of Internet voting systems has definitely shifted to those who claim that the systems can be made secure.

The Voting News Daily: India to get paper trail? DC Internet Voting Pwned – update. NY voter feedback poll

D.C.’s internet “Voting System Pwned by Michigan Wolverines” in public test. Great. What would experts find if allowed to “test” W.VA.’s military/internet voting system, or other states’ email balloting?..The NY State Board of Elections is conducting a voter feedback poll. So is the New York Daily news..Trial against Shelby Co TN Elections Commission starts Wednesday..Voting…

The Voting News Daily: A Citizen’s Audit of S.Carolina’s Voting System. Is there ‘a ghost in the machine?’

The results of Frank Heindel’s FOIA: “Citizen’s Audit of South Carolina’s Voting System October 2010″…The Aspen Times has one of best articles I’ve ever seen on e-voting issues in “Unlocking IRV in Aspen”…Florida Case Puts Focus on Issue of Absentee Ballot Fraud…Hawaii’s eGov website listed wrong date for Nov General Election…2nd-tier parties sue New York…

The Voting News Daily: D.C. halts test of internet voting pilot. Shelby Co TN election trial starts Monday

The District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics has suspended the public examination of DC’s internet voting pilot…NY Senate Elections Committee held a hearing on the recent primary. Lawrence Norden with Brennan Ctr for Justice makes recommendations…Judge won’t dismiss lawsuit against Shelby County TN Election Commission – “You might want to start preparing for…

Verified Voting Blog: Report from the Senate Hearings on the New York State Primary

On September 29th Senator Joseph Addabbo, chair of the Senate Elections Committee held a hearing on the recent New York State primary when new paper ballot and optical scan systems were used statewide for the first time. The hearing focused on reported problems that occurred in New York City, the largest election jurisdiction in the country with almost 4.5 million registered voters. In addition to the New York City Board of Elections, others giving testimony included the New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, the Brennan Center for Justice, the League of Women Voters of the City of New York, NYPIRG, Commissioner Doug Kellner of the State Board of Elections and others. Senator Addabbo chaired the hearing, with Senators Bill Perkins, Liz Krueger, and Daniel Squadron also attending.

The Voting News Daily: Brennan Ctr to vote vendors- report malfunctions. SC cnty stalls election FOIAs

California’s new law SB1404 requires vote vendors to report problems…Bo Lipari’s testimony on NY primary…Brennan Ctr letter asks vendors to self report probs…South Carolina Straight ticket warning..Charleston Co SC election office drags feet on FOIAS..Mary Mancini’s “The Worst Legislation in Tennessee!”..Fox says 7 states violating the MOVE act, may disenfranchise overseas & military voters. But…

The Voting News Daily: Travis TX judge nixes paper ballots. Philippine source code disclosure ordered

DoD Announces Absentee Voting Week..The Persistence of Partisan Election Administration..Shelby County TN expands whistleblower law, but leaves out reference to elections..Overseas Vote Foundation AK, MI, VI overseas voters: Want to #vote in Nov.? Oct. 3 is your Registration deadline…Court orders Philippine Elections Commission to Disclose source code used in May elections… All this and more…

Verified Voting Blog: Thoughts on the New York Primary

Despite the impressions received from media reports, the September 14th primary was not the first time that New Yorkers voted on paper ballots and scanners. In the 2009 off-year election, 47 counties in upstate New York used the new systems as part of a pilot program. This trial run taught participants valuable lessons, and New York City’s decision to abstain led directly to many of the problems reported there. In general, things went smoother upstate than in the City. Problem reports broke down into a few main categories:

Privacy Issues – One of the big lessons from the 2009 pilot was that voters felt that their ballots were too often exposed to public view. Some of this was inevitable – using a lever machine, surrounded on all sides by panels and curtains, the voter is in an isolation booth. Today, the small privacy booths where voters fill out their ballots are open on the back side, and if not placed correctly at the poll site (for example with the open side facing a wall) one can feel exposed. It’s very important that Boards of Elections think about layout and lines of sight within the polling place. A second frequent privacy complaint concerned carrying the paper ballot in plain view over to the scanner. This can only happen if Boards of Elections do not provide sufficient supplies of ‘privacy sleeves’ (folders which conceal the completed ballot) and adequately train poll workers in their distribution and use. Lack of privacy sleeves is an administrative failure, and is really inexcusable.

The Voting News Daily: 866-OUR-VOTE. NY fusion lawsuit, disabled access probs . AZ lawsuit update

Ruling in AZ election case…Disappearing Voters -No Penalties for Failing to Correctly Fill Out & Deliver Voter Reg.Forms…NC vote vendor does NOT want to break law..NY city disabled complain -voting places inaccessible & no ballot-marking devices..3rd party lawsuit against NY Fusion..Wisconsin Group alleges voter suppression..Why Your Toaster Works Better Than Your Voting Machine..1-866-OUR-VOTE is back..Ireland…

Verified Voting Blog: An Important New Proposal for Voting Machines

If you’ve wondered why voting machine problems seem to occur again and again around the country and what can be done about it, the Brennan Center at New York University School of Law has an answer. A report released last week by the non-partisan organization, Voting System Failures: A Database Solution, found that in the absence of requirements to report malfunctions, vendors do not keep election officials informed about voting system defects. The report recommends several remedies for this pervasive problem. Among other conclusions, it calls for a searchable national database of voting machine problems to be created and made available to the public.

The report found that election officials “must rely almost exclusively on the voting system vendors for information about malfunctions, defects, vulnerabilities and other problems that the vendors have discovered, or that have occurred with their voting systems in other states“. Vendors “don’t have an incentive to inform [election officials] of certain problems with their systems”. Noting that this leads to repeated failures of systems year after year, ” these malfunctions – and their consequence, disenfranchisement – could have been avoided had election officials and/or public advocates known about earlier problems and had an opportunity to fix them”.

The Voting News Daily: Paper Ballots, Common Sense. Teacher pay online vote fiasco. Afghan vote violence

Common Sense: The Indispensable Role Of Voter Verified Paper Ballots..(NOT)Counting Votes in Shelby CO Tennessee..Why No Central Database Of E-Voting Problems?..Internet voting fiasco: Spam filter prevents many Palm Beach Co teachers from casting online ballot on new contract…Unlimited Political Speech For Corporations That Don’t Say Pledge Of Allegiance…Violence and fraud mar Afghan election..Burma Excludes Thousands…

The Voting News Daily: New voting machines, angry New Yorkers. New arrest over India EVMs

Brennan Ctr: “Voting System Failures: A Database Solution”…Maryland officials blame voting machine failures on poll workers..The latest target of New Yorkers’ ire: new voting machines, which perplexed them, broke down and ate their primary election ballots…New Jersey Military/Internet voting pilot bill..Vote probs in DC, MA, MD…Pune India engineer held, cops say gave EVM to researcher…Why…

The Voting News Daily: Suing Sarasota Election Sup: the Sequel. Shelby Co TN lawsuits update

Shelby Co Alabama fight against voting rights act argued in DC..Arizona fake green pty candidates stay on ballot for now..Another election down, another accusation of misconduct against Sarasota Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent..Hawaii voters take note: many polling places have closed..Maryland early voting yields only 2% turnout, costs $3.4M…Ballot access in NC nearly impossible says…

The Voting News Daily: AZ election lawsuit begins. Hawaii cuts 97 poll sites. Mail ballots dont help turnout

Citizens’ suit against Maricopa Co AZ election office begins Sept 10..Los Angeles Co voters prefer that new voting system use paper ballots…Election watchdog report challenges Scott Brown election in Massachusetts…New Mexico SoS Herrera troubles: 4 election chiefs quit so far, Herrera fired 2 whistleblowers last week & SoS office swept for bugs..Virgin Isl voting machine…

The Voting News Daily: NM SoS fires critics. Moldova voter roll hacked. Military Voters get your ballot!

Lawyers’ Committee Condemns DOJ and Georgia’s Maneuvers to Preclear New Registration Procedures…Hinds Co Mississippi to buy 300 used optical scanners for $350 ea…New Mexico SOS fires whistleblowers…WA SOS office straight talk on military vote…Military & Overseas Voters, Submit your Ballot Request for the Gen Election!. Get big discounts on express delivery of voted ballots back…

Verified Voting Blog: How the Internet Works

If we can use the Internet to deliver blank ballots, then why not use it to return voted ballots? Part of the answer lies with the nature of the Internet itself. If we are to be sure that the vote cast is the same as the vote counted, we need a way to guarantee that 1) the voted ballot has not been substituted or altered in transit, and 2) the ballot received actually was sent by the voter, not someone impersonating them. But due to the way the Internet currently works, neither of these conditions can be assured. Before looking at sending ballots via Email, it’s helpful to understand how all Internet communication works, whether it be an email, website, file download, or tweet. What we now call the Internet grew out of research on connecting computers of different types and at different locations into a single network. One of the problems facing researchers was how to move electronic information reliably on pathways that are unknown and unpredictable. Two computers might be connected via a wire across the room, or across a huge network of sub-connections spanning the planet.

The Voting News Daily: I-Voting, direct democracy. ‘Hack is Wack’. Sarasota Election Sup faces class action?

Snoop Dogg fights cyber crime, see ‘Hack is Wack’…Dr.Joseph Lorenzo Hall writes about Electronic Voting and Direct Democracy…Class Action Lawsuit Being Filed Against Sarasota Elections Sup Kathy Dent?…Missing ballot ovals confuse Billings Montana voters…New Jersey lawmaker wants military internet voting experiment…18,000 Wisconsin voters could be cut from rolls…Fox News article: Online Voting For Military Serving…

The Voting News Daily: VA Election Site IT outage. Kathy Dent recount flap. AK’s 11,200 iffy mail ballots

Luther Weeks on Connecticut elections: “State recanvass law inadequate for close elections”…Alaska mail ballots – Over 20,000 Votes Still To Be Counted, 11,200 are ‘question’ ballots…Sarasota FL Election Sup Kathy Dent accused of influencing election in recount…Virginia’s State Board of Elections still affected by IT outage that began last week in a data center run…

The Voting News Daily: AZ, FL, TN vote probs. Harris TX voting equip burned up. EVM expert bailed out

“With less than seven weeks before early voting starts for the general election, the clock is ticking for Tennessee’s election officials’ efforts to get it right.” ~ Tennessean.com..Broward’s Disappearing Ink Before Election Day & Early Voting…MORE Lee Co FL ballot problems…Toast: Harris County Texas’ 10,000 eSlate electronic voting machines…DOD denies 4 states military ballot law…