Push for safer electronic voting bolstered by court decision

[struggle4progress]

Posted on Wed, Jul. 07, 2004
JIM WASSERMAN
Associated Press


SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's push for safer electronic voting appears to be gaining momentum with a fresh victory in federal court and new agreements from counties with touch-screen machines to make extra security arrangements.

Shelley, who banned electronic voting in the state's Nov. 2 presidential election unless it met strict new security tests, called anew Wednesday for stronger measures after a federal judge in Los Angeles upheld his actions. His office also announced that more than half the counties affected by the conditional ban have agreed to new rules allowing them to use their machines. Napa County became the newest this week.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper denied requests by disability rights activists and four California counties - Riverside, San Bernardino, Plumas and Kern - to overturn Shelley's conditional April 30 ban on touch screens for the November election.

Cooper's ruling, from a state where 43 percent of voters used touch-screen machines in March and thousands experienced problems, provides new ammunition to critics nationally who call electronic voting untrustworthy without a paper backup. Activists in several states, including Maryland, Ohio, Florida and Texas, are challenging the use of paperless voting in a November presidential election expected to be tight.
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http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/9100664.htm


Groups Challenges Rule on Touchscreen Recounts
7/7/2004
By The Associated Press

A group is suing the state to reverse a rule that tells elections supervisors they don't have to include touchscreen ballots in manual recounts.
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The group says the rule ignores the fact that machines can malfunction or be tampered with.

Among organizations participating in the lawsuit are the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause Florida and the Florida Voting League.

The suit challenges a determination made by the state Division of Elections in April that touchscreen ballots do not fall into the state's recount laws because they leave no question about how voters intended to vote.

http://www.wcjb.com/news.asp?id=10104


Experts warn of potential voting machine problem
By SUMANA CHATTERJEE
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Posted on Wed, Jul. 07, 2004

WASHINGTON - Just four months before November's elections, vulnerabilities persist in electronic voting machines used nationwide, a group of computer experts told House lawmakers on Wednesday.

The experts are concerned that this fall's elections may be plagued by hackers, fraud and computer malfunctions. Some argue for the return of the paper ballot as a backup to verify voters' intentions.
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Nearly 50 million Americans are expected to vote using touch-screen machines this fall. Many states and counties moved to electronic voting machines after the contested 2000 election results from Florida.
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"Given the gravity of the security failings the computer security community has documented ... it is irresponsible to move forward without addressing them," said Avi Rubin, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute in Baltimore. The institute's doctoral candidates found significant design and programming flaws in software for Diebold voting machines, a popular system.
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http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/9100338.htm

[mom cat]

1. Bev Harris for Chair of the Federal Elections Commission!

[BeFree]

3. I second that...Bev, will ya work for us? Please? For pay?

Next Tuesday the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, founded in the aftermath of the 2000 vote to help states ensure fair elections, will try to come up with ways to reduce security vulnerabilities and make source codes available to independent testers.

The US Election Commission, eh? Anybody got their telephone number? Let's give 'em a peace of our mind. By next Tuesday.

[stellanoir]

2. as California goes

so goes the nation. . .goddess willing