The best laid plans of mice, men and elections officials often go awry and that’s exactly what happened to 12 years of studying and planning for Travis County, Texas Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir. Long before anyone ever thought to mention Russians and elections in the same breath, Travis County began looking for a way to improve the security of the county’s voting system and provide a verifiable paper trail. DeBeauvoir was upset that activists were attacking elections administrators for the design of voting systems and the purchase of DRE voting systems that did not have a paper trail.
“Election Administrators were and are not responsible for system design nor what can legally be purchased and used for elections, yet were being blamed for real and/or perceived deficiencies,” DeBeauvoir said.
So she challenged a group of computer security experts and academics to step-up and off more than misplaced criticisms. Professor Dan Wallach, Rice University, agreed and helped assemble a team of experts to design a voting system than answered the concerns. STAR Vote was born of this collaboration.
Full Article: electionlineWeekly.