Category Archives: E-voting

The Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), responsible to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for the drafting guidance for voting system standards, met last week for the first time since 2007. Since the last meeting of the TGDC, there have been several changes in membership, including the chair (now new National Institute of Standards and Technology [...]

On Monday the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released a draft of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) Version 1.1 for public comment. This version of the VVSG is an update of the current version of the VVSG, approved in 2005 and in effect since 2007. The comment period will close in late September, and the [...]

In response to a request from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted research on six specific areas in connection to voting systems. We posted about that request earlier on this blog. The goal of this research was to focus on the state of some very specific technical issues [...]

Early on Election Day morning (at 1:16 AM) George Mason University’s e-mail system sent out a message to students under the Provost’s name stating that the Election Day had been moved to November 5. Here is the text of the message: To the Mason Community: Please note that election day has been moved to November [...]

Saturday’s Washington Post detailed growing concerns and political battles over the implementation of new voter registration procedures as states use newly constituted statewide voter registration databases. One of the most difficult issues to resolve is the “no match” problem when state voter registration databases are compared against federal databases (such as the Social Security Number [...]

In a recently released report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) criticized the voting system testing lab accreditation program administered by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). You can read the report online. The voting system testing lab accreditation program is intended to certify the processes [...]

Last week the Board of Advisors of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) met over two days to discuss pending and new business. While this meeting (and most meetings of the EAC and its boards) covered many topics, the items having to do with the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) are worth passing along. The staff [...]

Last week we started a series of posts highlighting our high-level comments on the the Election Assistance Commission’s Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG). Our first post focused on the important new concept — Software Independence. Today’s post focuses on a related new concept — the Innovation Class.

Three weeks ago, USACM filed detailed comments with the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) on its draft of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. (Quick Review: These are proposed Federal standards for voting equipment, which are voluntary in nature but some states require manufacturers follow them.) Realizing that many people will not be able to read through [...]

HR 5036, a bill that would provide resources for jurisdictions to purchase paper-based voting systems for the 2008 elections, was voted down in the House on Tuesday. The bill was considered under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority to pass. It fell short, 239-178. Bill opponents criticized the cost of the bill [...]

The Committee on State Voter Registration Databases of the National Research Council released an interim report last week. An ad hoc committee under the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and sponsored by the Election Assistance Commission, this committee is charged to identify and address issues and concerns associated with operating statewide voter registration databases. The [...]

Last week the Committee on House Administration marked up HR 5036, the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008. The bill, introduced by Representative Rush Holt (D-N.J.), would provide reimbursement for jurisdictions that would purchase paper-based voting systems for the 2008 elections. USACM commented on the legislation in a letter we sent to Rep. [...]

In November the EAC began a 120 day comment period on the next iteration of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, which are the Federal standards for all voting equipment. Today the EAC extended that deadline by another 60 days, pushing it to roughly May 5. USACM plans to file comments. To review and comment on [...]

As noted in a previous blog post, this morning the Task Force on the contested Florida 13th District election met briefly to hear the final report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO was asked to review the election machines (and previously conducted tests of those machines) used in Sarasota County in order to [...]

Congressional Quarterly is reporting that the Committee on House Administration’s Task Force on the Florida 13th Congressional District contested election will meet this Friday at 10 a.m. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will present its final report on the election, and the Task Force will make its recommendation to the full committee. The contest of [...]

We are starting a series of weekly posts taking a high-level look at some of the hot tech policy issues in Congress for 2008. The first is an area that we’ve already covered extensively — electronic voting reform. Last year three big stories dominated e-voting issues: 1) controversy over how e-voting machines preformed during the [...]

This past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine has a great piece on the dynamics of electronic voting issues in the United States. The article gets a number of things right and is well worth a read. First, it discusses the relatively recent trend of local election officials asking much tougher questions about the reliability, security [...]

Yesterday the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) released it’s online comment tool for commenting on the next iteration of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. Released in August by the EAC, this version is the first full rewrite of the standards in some time. The current version of the guidelines (sans commenting capability) is available online. The [...]

We have tracked the progress of the disputed election in the 13th Congressional District of Florida for months now. In short, the race was decided by fewer than 400 votes, and there were several thousand undervotes (no vote recorded for that race compared to others on the same ballot) in Sarasota County, only one of [...]

Update 9/18: Apparently the title for this post is still apt. This legislation made it onto the calendar for House consideration earlier this week, but it looks like, once again, it has been pulled. We don’t expect to see action this week. The delay apparently still revolves around claims of whether the legislation unduly burdens [...]

Early this afternoon, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) formally approved its draft of the next edition of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. After some final editing and adjustments, they will forward this document to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The current draft is available online. Running at 578 pages and approximately 1170 requirements, this [...]

On Friday, August 17, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) will meet by teleconference. This will be the Committee’s final meeting on the next generation of voting system guidelines. The meeting is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time and run until approximately 5:30 p.m. A rough agenda is available one the same page [...]

Following the top-to-bottom review we posted about earlier, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has changed the certification status of the voting systems subject to the review, as well as one system that was not submitted for the review. Bowen’s decision gives affected jurisdictions six months to adjust before the February 5, 2008 Presidential Primary. [...]

Update – August 1 – Senator Feinstein (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Rules Committee, has announced she will hold a hearing on this report sometime in September. This report *may* also come up in tomorrow’s scheduled hearing of the Elections Subcommittee of the Committee on House Administration, as the chair and ranking member are both [...]

With news that Representative Holt’s e-voting reform legislation has stalled (reported in New York Times) attention turns to the Senate this week as it holds a hearing on Senator Feinstein’s e-voting reform legislation. On Wednesday at 10:00 AM, the Senate Rules Committee will hold its first hearing on the Senator’s legislation S. 1487 — The [...]

According to the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) website, the plenary meeting originally scheduled for July 3 (and subject of an earlier post on this blog) will now take place on August 17. It will still take place by teleconference, from 11:30-5:30 Eastern time. Further details will be available by July 30 at the TGDC [...]

An article in today’s New York Times (registration required), describes the current status of military voting overseas. In brief, the systems in place to help service members stationed overseas to vote remain “slow, confusing and plagued with security and privacy problems.” Meanwhile, Americans serving abroad continue to be frustrated with the inefficiency of voting while [...]

On Monday and Tuesday, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) held their 9th plenary meeting at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Responsible for advising the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) on the next edition of the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines, the TGDC is working hard to make sure they can present their draft to the EAC [...]

The Committee on House Administration has acted within the last week on both the Holt e-voting legislation, H.R. 811, and the contested election for the Florida 13th Congressional District. First, we must note the passing of the Committee’s Chair, Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald, on April 22nd from cancer. She had just started a formal leave from [...]

This morning a Task Force of the Committee on House Administration held a closed meeting regarding the voting irregularities in Sarasota County’s election for the 13th District seat. The Task Force is headed by Representative Charles Gonzalez of Texas. The Task Force was formed in late March, as noted in the committee press release currently [...]

We are continuing (regrettably after some delay) to take a deeper look at Representative Holt’s proposal — The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007. In my last post, I discussed his central proposal, which is to mandate that all machines produce voter-verified paper ballots that preserve privacy and are durable. Today I’m going [...]

Readers of Hill Tech Happenings will have noticed the recent string of voting related hearings in Congress. It’s just one sign of the continued interest in voting reform expressed both in Congress and the Executive Branch. Once the flurry of hearings end (for the moment) tomorrow, we can give you a more in-depth analysis of [...]

The State of Florida has released its audit report for the contested election in Sarasota County. You can see the report from the state and the report from the SAIT lab at Florida State University online, along with the Secretary of State’s statement. Regular readers know we have posted on this subject before. And while [...]

Election reform was an active issue during the past ten days. Legislation was introduced, a hearing held on electronic voting, and the Election Assistance Commission decided to implement its full testing and certification program for voting systems in early March. Two pieces of electronic voting legislation have been introduced in the House. HR 756, the [...]

While the first session of the 110th Congress gets underway today, here are a few notes on recent electronic voting activity. First, the New York Times (registration required) is reporting about a recent disclosure that a testing lab has been temporarily barred from approving new voting machines. The company, Ciber Inc., is also having trouble [...]

Update – December 21 The court hearing over access to the voting machine source code ended yesterday, with the judge in the case requesting written briefs to be submitted by Friday, instead of oral arguments. While one voting expert testified that it was highly unlikely for the undervote to be a result of voter choice [...]

The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) met yesterday in Washington, to handle regular business and hear testimony on the mid-term elections. The EAC was created as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to assist states and localities in the administration of elections and to administer the funds designated by HAVA for states to update [...]

Two items of e-voting interest – aside from the ongoing audit in Sarasota County, Florida. Electionline.org has released its report on the 2006 election. It outlines the various difficulties experienced across the U.S. and notes that while there were no widespread problems, it would be hard to characterize the first widespread use of electronic voting [...]

Update – November 29 All the area papers have reported on yesterday’s parallel test in Sarasota County. There were some small discrepencies between the results and the scripts they had election workers run during the test. The video will be reviewed today. One item in the press coverage grabbed my attention. If I understand this [...]

Update – November 22 The major event since the last update is the filing of a second lawsuit on Tuesday contesting the election – this one by voters and poll workers, supported by several voting rights groups. I do want to note a couple of useful items put out by local press: Interactive map of [...]

Today is Election Day across the United States. The main story is who will control Congress when the polls close, but of equal interest (at least to us) will be the experience of voters’ using e-voting equipment, considering that approximately one-third of voters will be using new, electronic, voting equipment today. In an effort to [...]

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), formed as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), is taking responsibility for administering (among other things) the testing and certification (including re-certification and de-certification) of electronic voting systems. They have recently developed a draft procedural manual for testing and certification of voting systems. The EAC is seeking [...]

Professor Ed Felten at Princeton University (also a member of USACM’s Executive Committee) and two associates (Ari Feldman and Alex Halderman) released a new study today confirming the security vulnerabilities found with a popular model of Diebold direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines by many previous studies and exposing new, potentially more serious ones. Professor [...]

Update – September 12 While audit trails are important, proper planning works wonders for successful voting. Today (9/12) is a primary election day in my local jurisdiction – Montgomery County, Maryland. Arriving shortly after the polls opened this morning, I found that the smart cards necessary to use our DRE machines were not there. In [...]

July has seen a lot of attention focused on e-voting issues. First, the Brennan Center releases a major report on threats to e-voting systems. Then Congress holds a much-needed hearing on e-voting (USACM offered testimony). And this week the National Academies released an interesting new report discussing emerging problems with e-voting systems and making recommendations [...]

In late June the Brennan Center for Justice, located at the NYU School of Law, released a report on voting system security. The report, The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World, was compiled over the course of a year by a task force of government, academic and private sector experts and is [...]

With so much happening in the technology and technology policy fields, it is a rare day that computer experts focus on one particular issue. So it seems pretty significant that several blogs and news reports with quotes from well-respected computer scientists are focusing on a new report by Harri Hursti for blackboxvoting.org outlining several new [...]

Friday’s Computerworld has an interesting article about problems with the new California statewide voter registration database. According to the report, in the past three months about 43 percent of voter registration forms in Los Angeles County were rejected. Alademda County’s rejection rate was about 10 percent. Although the article is a little vague, the likely [...]

The Washington Post reports that Maryland Governor Ehrlich (R-MD) wrote a letter to the Chairman of the State Board of Elections calling for the board to replace touch screen voting machines with optical scan machines. According to the Post, his letter states: “Maryland’s lack of a paper trail means we are no longer a national [...]

North Carolina’s State Board of Elections created quite a stir recently when, surprisingly, it decided to certify Diebold e-voting equipment for use in the state despite a still-running debate about the state’s new source code “escrow” rules and the company’s compliance with them. The requirements call on companies to deposit the source code for their [...]

EDRi’s latest newsletter informs us about a recent article in the Irish Times [subscription required] describing the Irish government’s plans to subject their e-voting machines to additional security and risk-related scrutiny: The Government has initiated a new round of assessment and testing of the controversial €60 million electronic voting system currently in storage. An advertisement [...]

The NY Times is running an editorial today urging House members to support Rep. Rush Holt’s electronic voting bill (H.R. 550): There are many problems with American elections, but none more serious than the rise of paperless electronic voting, whose results cannot be trusted. Grass-roots reformers are in the middle of a two-day lobbying blitz [...]

Current Election Assistance Commission (EAC) member and former EAC chairman DeForest B. Soaries Jr. recently announced his resignation from the EAC, citing, among other things, dissatisfaction with the level of support the EAC has received from the federal government: “All four of us had to work without staff, without offices, without resources,” Mr. Soaries said. [...]

Washington D.C. hosts two major voting-policy events this week. First, the Carter/Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform kicked-off its first hearing yesterday, part of a six month effort to study the 2004 elections and make recommendations to policymakers. The Commission is led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker and [...]