New Articles for This Topic
Last Update Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 23:04:10 -0400 (EDT)
- http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2005-7/1228w.html#item1
"Errors Lead California Officials to Warn Voting-Machine Company"
The discovery of vote count and verification errors in November's special
election prompted California election officials to threaten Election
Systems and Software (ES&S) with decertification if the company does not
repair its software. The affected machines, used in 11 California counties ... - http://www.acm.org/usacm/VRD/
"Voter Databases Must Be Secured, Report Says"
CNet (02/17/06); McCullagh, Declan
States are scrambling to comply with federal requirements that voter
records be stored in central databases, but a 60-page report ACM released
on Thursday warns that the databases could be vulnerable to fraud, and that
states must do more to shore up security, reliability, and privacy.
"Nobody's done this kind of analysis," says former ACM President Barbara
Simons. "We're not out to criticize anyone. We're out to try to provide
information." Simons, co-chair of the ACM Committee on Guidelines for
Implementation of Voter Registration Databases, notes the committee's
report highlights numerous security applications familiar to computer
scientists, but likely unknown to many election officials. In accordance
with the Help America Vote Act, which requires election officials to create
statewide voter registration databases, 28 states have hired outside
contractors to provide their election databases, and 21 have opted to
develop their own. While requiring "adequate technological security," the
legislation does not require encryption or any other specific method.
Without sufficient security provisions, hackers could remove eligible
voters or insert fraudulent names into the database. ACM is also concerned
about privacy, noting that many states allow the sale of voter registration
databases for both political and commercial purposes. The National
Association of Secretaries of State reports that just 24 states had been
expected to comply with the federal deadline of Jan. 1, 2006, though most
of the rest will likely have created their databases by the fall elections.
The complete ACM report, entitled Statewide Databases of Registered Voters:
A Study Of Accuracy, Privacy, Usability, Security, and Reliability Issues,
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New Articles for This Topic
Last Update Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 09:41:16 -0500
- http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2005-7/0826f.html#item15
"Electoral Commission Eyes Open Source Voting"
Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) CIO Ken Hunter said it is possible
that its next-generation election application, known as the general
enrollment election support information system (Genesis), will use open
source software thanks to a migration away from incumbent legacy systems. ... - http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2005-7/0921w.html#item1
"Commission Recommends Voting Safeguards"
Federal Computer Week (09/19/05); Hardy, Michael
The Commission on Federal Election Reform issued a nine-page report on
Sept. 19 listing recommendations designed to safeguard the voting process.
The commission calls for interoperability between state voter databases in
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New Articles for This Topic
Last Update Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 15:56:34 -0500
- http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/1022f.html#item14
"Fixing the Vote"
The 2000 U.S. presidential election was characterized by massive voter
disenfranchisement owing to registration database errors, equipment
foul-ups stemming from poorly designed ballots, and aggravation at polling
places due to long lines and other discouraging holdups. Election ... - http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/1027w.html#item1
"E-Vote Vendors Hand Over Software"
Federal officials announced on Oct. 26 that five voting machine
manufacturers agreed to turn their e-voting software over to the National
Software Reference Library, an archive established by the U.S. Election
Assistance Commission (EAC) that election officials can reference in order ... - http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/1029f.html#item1
"Voting Machines Remain Unsecured, Expert Warns"
Speaking at an American Institute of Physics forum on the future of
information technology at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center this week,
Stanford University computer security expert and former ACM
President Barbara Simons warned that electronic security ... - http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/1115m.html#item16
"A Conversation With Avi Rubin"
Johns Hopkins University professor Avi Rubin has become a leading figure in
the debate over the security of electronic voting thanks to his analysis of
Diebold AccuVoteTS voting system software, which uncovered fundamental
vulnerabilities that have sparked demands for a way to verify ... - http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2004-6/1117w.html#item1
"The Real Problem With Voting"
The recent presidential election was plagued by irregularity and potential
vulnerability to fraud, but not because of the technology used, writes Ted
Selker, co-director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project (VTP). On
Nov. 2, voters in the Boston area used optical-scan ballots that were ... - http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2005-7/0613m.html#item11
"New Standards for Voting Equipment in Development"
The implementation deadline of January 1, 2006 for satisfying
the voting equipment standards mandated by the 2002 Help America
Vote Act (HAVA) is an unrealistic goal for many states,
according to the Information Technology Association ... - http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/collection/tech.php?taid=&id=2345869&kud=1
See IEEE Security & Privacy's special issue on e-voting security,
January/February 2004. Should be in IEEE Xplore.
Also, see the hisotry of vote-recording machines,