Threat Level is a blog in the WIRED blog network. It’s a blog about “privacy, security and crime online,” but many of the posts are about the technological side of election reform. I just bookmarked it, and will be visiting often. Here are a few recent posts that will be of interest to the Why Tuesday? audience:

• Senate to Hold Hearing on Security of Voting Machines (Today)

In the wake of the California report released last week showing that Red Team security researchers were able to hack voting machines from three of the top voting machine companies, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) announced today that the Senate Rules and Administration Committee will hold a hearing in September to examine the report’s findings.

[snip]

One wonders where the senator has been the last four years that she’s surprised by the findings revealed in the report. Feinstein introduced a bill earlier this year that would require voting machines nationwide to produce a paper trail, but the bill has received little support in the Senate thus far.

• CA Releases Results of Red-Team Investigation of Voting Machines: All Three Systems Could Be Compromised (July 27)

The team found that it could compromise all three of the top voting systems used in the state made by Diebold Election Systems, Hart Intercivic, and Sequoia Voting Systems, with the caveat that many, but not all, of the attacks they were able to accomplish on the machines could be mitigated with proper physical security of the machines, security training of staff, and contingency planning.

• GAO Briefs House on Investigation into Disputed Florida Election (July 27)

The Government Accountability Office will be providing a closed briefing to Congress today regarding the progress of its investigation into last year’s disputed election in Sarasota County, Florida. You’ll recall that the race in question, in Florida’s 13 Congressional District, is under investigation due to questions about more than 18,000 ballots that registered no vote in that race and complaints from numerous voters that touch-screen voting machines used in the election failed to respond to their touch.

Click here for all of the Threat Level posts about E-Voting. All that I’ve seen are written by journalist Kim Zetter.

* A new post from Kim: CA Releases Source Code Review of Voting Machines — New Security Flaws Revealed; Old Ones Were Never Fixed

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Posted in Election Reform, California, Florida, Electronic voting | Comments Off

Saturday, the New York Times ran an article detailing a study by computer scientists from California universities which highlighted the susceptibility of electronic voting machines to hacking. Today, the Times editorializes in favor of a bill before congress that deals with this important part of our broken election system:

Before the House of Representatives takes its August recess, it owes it to the voters to pass a bill that would finally fix the problems with electronic voting. And there is a good bill ready, sponsored by Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, that would go a long way toward making elections more secure.

Electronic voting machines in their current form simply cannot be trusted. Just last week, a team of computer scientists from California released a study of three different voting systems that once again showed how easy it is to hack into electronic systems and alter the count.

The most important protection against electronic voting fraud is the voter-verified paper trail, a paper record that the voter can check to make sure that it properly reflects his or her choices. There should then be mandatory audits of a significant number of these paper records to ensure that the results tallied on the voting machines match the votes recorded on paper.

Mr. Holt’s bill would require that every voting machine produce a paper record of every vote cast in a federal election, and it would mandate random audits. It would also prohibit the use of wireless and Internet technology, which are especially vulnerable to hackers.

Michael Waldman, head of of NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, which has done some great work on the mechanical aspect of election reform, blogs about Rep. Holt’s bill here.

Several Democratic presidential candidates and their advisors spoke to the issue of how to best count every vote in our behind the scenes look at the Democrats’ CNN/YouTube presidential debate last week. But, as you hear me mention to candidate Dennis Kucinich in the video, there is much more work to be done than just counting every vote. Since 1945 only half of eligible Americans have made it to the polls, and we’re dedicated to exploring why that is and what our elected officials can do about it.

Next stop: September 17, the CNN/YouTube Republican debate in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Posted in Election Reform, Legislation, Electronic voting | Comments Off