NIST: Touch-screen voting machines not safe

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From: [email protected]
Date: December 2, 2006 12:33:22 PM EST
To: [email protected]
Subject: NIST: Touch-screen voting machines not safe

Dave

let's all give a loud 'Huzzah' for NIST!

Bob Rosenberg
P.O. Box 33023
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Mobile:  602-206-2856
LandLine:  602-274-3012
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	Posted on Sat, Dec. 02, 2006
Miami Herald
ELECTIONS
Touch-screen voting machines not safe, federal agency says
With voting machines in Sarasota still under the microscope, a  
federal agency
criticized machines that provide no backup paper trail.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16145880.htm

BY LESLEY CLARK
[email protected]

WASHINGTON - Touch-screen voting machines that lack an independent  
trail -- like the
ones under review in a contested congressional seat in Sarasota --  
can't be ''made
secure'' and should be modified to include a paper record, a report  
from an
influential federal agency says.

The draft report -- compiled by staff at the National Institute of  
Standards and
Technology -- is likely to give a major boost to efforts to mandate  
paper trails in
states like Florida, where they are not required.

Citing the report and the investigation in Sarasota, California Sen.  
Dianne
Feinstein, the incoming chairwoman of the Senate Rules and  
Administration Committee,
said Friday that the report underscores a need for legislation to  
require
independent paper records.

''As we've seen in Sarasota, where officials have been unable to  
account for about
18,000 undervotes in the congressional election, it is crucial that  
there be an
independent record that can be reviewed by election officials,''  
Feinstein said.

She noted that the report ``reaffirms my belief that there are  
serious questions
about the security and reliability of paperless electronic voting  
machines.''

A spokesman for Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood said the  
agency was reviewing
the report but was not opposed to paper trails. Spokesman Sterling  
Ivey noted that
the state's elections supervisors are also reviewing the issue.

''It may be a new piece of technology, but we first want to be sure  
we don't rush to
judgment,'' Ivey said.

STILL IN DRAFT FORM

The draft findings are to be reviewed next week by the Technical  
Guidelines
Development Committee. Its job is to provide recommendations on  
voting equipment and
technology to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

If the commission were to adopt the recommendations, paperless  
machines would likely
be barred after 2009 or 2010. Though the commission's standards are  
voluntary, most
states follow them.

The study found that electronic voting machines ''in practical terms  
cannot be made
secure'' because no independent evidence of voters' intentions exists.

''The accuracy of the electronic records has to be ascertained in  
some other way,
which in this case would be by trusting that its software is correct  
and has
remained error-free,'' the authors of the report wrote. ``Verifying  
that this is the
case is so complex as to be unfeasible; current testing methods could  
not guarantee
this.''

It recommends ''optical scan'' ballots in which voters complete a  
paper ballot that
is read by a computer or electronic machines that provide election  
officials with a
paper audit trail.

The authors of the report said they volunteered as poll workers and  
election judges
and observed other elections and official canvassing and counting  
activities.

A spokesman for Election Systems and Software, which makes the  
machines used in
Miami-Dade, Broward and Sarasota counties, said the company was  
reviewing the report
but ''would take strong exception to any suggestions'' that the  
machines are not
secure.

''The machines are built from the ground up for one sole purpose:  
running
elections,'' said spokesman Ken Fields. ``We have built into the  
system unique and
proprietary safeguards to ensure security, and those features have  
been proven
through extensive testing and use in thousands of elections.''

The finding comes as support grows for requiring a paper trail for  
the computerized
machines that were eagerly embraced in the wake of the 2000  
presidential voting
debacle in Florida. Incoming House Speaker Marco Rubio has said he  
supports the
concept of a paper record as an investigation continues in Sarasota,  
where more than
18,000 voters failed to make a selection in a congressional race.

The Miami-Dade Commission is expected to vote Tuesday on a pair of  
voting-machine
resolutions, including one that asks state officials to certify  
voting machines that
include a paper trail.

A second would direct County Manager George Burgess to study the cost  
of buying them.

''Those people who are dinosaurs like myself and are not computer- 
literate and still
don't trust the machine want a paper trail,'' Commissioner Barbara  
Jordan said last
month. ``Going back to the punch cards would be fine with me.''

Indeed, the federal study notes that the lack of a paper trail ``is  
one of the main
reasons behind continued questions about voting system security and  
diminished
public confidence in elections.''

VULNERABILITY ISSUE

It notes that the electronic machines are ''popular with election  
officials who have
had to deal with logistical and accuracy problems and historical  
fraud in handling
and counting paper ballots,'' but that many in the computer  
engineering and security
community believe the machines are vulnerable to undetectable errors  
and ``malicious
software attacks.

''Potentially,'' the report states, quoting engineers who question  
the reliability
of the systems, 'a single programmer could `rig' a major election.  
The computer
security community rejects the notion that [the machines] can be made  
secure,
arguing that their design is inadequate to meet the requirements of  
voting and that
they are vulnerable to large-scale errors and election fraud.''

The report notes that 27 states already require paper trails, and  
eight other states
don't mandate them but use them statewide.

Miami Herald staff writer Matthew I. Pinzur contributed to this report.



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