Minnesota Legislation addresses security issues of optiscans

[Carolab]

Advances made for election security

At least two provisions of HF 874, the new voting equipment law passed during the regular session, will contribute to election security and the prevention or apprehension of errors or tampering.

Voter-verified paper trail – Voting equipment must allow voters to record their votes on a permanent paper ballot or paper record and to change votes or correct errors before the ballot is cast. The paper ballot or paper record must be available for any recount.
Escrow of source code – Vendors of voting equipment sold through the statewide buying contract must provide the source code for the voting system to an independent evaluator chosen by the vendor, the secretary of state, and the chairs of the state’s major political parties. The evaluator must examine the source code and certify that the voting system will record and count votes as represented by the vendor. The major political parties may also conduct this evaluation independently of the joint evaluation.

Another bill (HF 1481—Session Law Chapter 156) extends indefinitely the random audit planned for the 2006 elections. It also clarifies that the audit law applies only to federal, constitutional, and legislative elections. The proposal for the random audit was championed by Rep. Bill Hilty (DFL-Finlayson)

http://www.fairvotemn.org/node/120

[lonestarnot]

1. Excellent!

[oscar111]

2. crannies of machines= where geniuses create new ways to steal votes

that experts said "impossible to do "

end all nooks and crannies ===

toss all machines

France, Italy, Canada, Germany get results in an hour

by PAPER BALLOTS HAND COUNTED.

more elections, so never too many issues to hand count at once, at precinct level

no theft and tons cheaper when you dont shell out millions for theft-machines.

Machines are just stupid. Toss them all.

[Carolab]

4. Actually, if you read the whole article linked you will see that there

FairVote was trying to get legislation passed for IRV, and they are talking hand-counted options in order to allow people to have ranked voting...read it all...

{snip}

The legislature’s failure to pass this provision is a set-back for the movement for better voting methods. However, it is not an insurmountable obstacle. Home rule jurisdictions that would adopt a ranked or cumulative voting method have several options for counting the votes:

Conduct the election with hand-counted paper ballots
Use the same voting equipment and make the same adaptations as jurisdictions that have adapted a customized solution for counting ranked ballots (San Francisco, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Create a customized solution for new voting equipment

{snip}

[Dynasty_At_Passes]

3. Good news for Minnesota....

They are finally saved from the horrors.....Montana is to. Now how about the rest, and the poor state of Mississippi, MS and Michigan must be fixed!!! (and not that way, hell no not that way)

[wli]

5. not very convinced...

I don't trust anything but paper. Take computers completely out of the equation period. Mechanical devices only, even if it takes stone tablets and cuneiform.

And I'm a computer programmer.

[FogerRox]

6. kicked and recommended

[oscar111]

7. Carolab, a bit confused by the link

good if they see hand count as an option

bad if they dont shoot for it as the first and only good change-to goal.

ASIDE; clab, what means IRV or whatever the initials were? This mule dont know what that meaning could is.

-- back to the link/==lesser Minnesota goals, such as VVPB, still have lots of nooks and crannies in which to invent tricks.

SYSTEMS THEORY - the more complexity, the more tricks become possible {my own system theory.. anyone really know this field ? LOL}

[Carolab]

12. IRV = Instant Runoff Voting, which is FairVote's primary focus

They recently got into the security end of this, as far as I know.

I had written them a lot of times and said I didn't like them focusing on IRV until we get the current problems fixed. Maybe they listened.

I am still working on security issues with the state. They need to understand the "nooks and crannies", as you say.

I have always wanted hand-counted paper ballots. But we have these machines now and we have to work it out. For now, we MUST have paper ballots and we MUST have plenty of security around the casting, counting, recording and reporting. Getting independently verifiable code and aggressive precinct-based auditing are good steps in Minnesota, where we already have paper ballots. But we need more to make optical scanning as secure as possible.

Plus we need a NEW secretary of state. Christian Sande is running here against Kiffmeyer. He is an election law expert and loves to litigate.

[Kip Humphrey]

13. Carolab, Do you know the particulars of the auditing provisions?

Are audits performed real-time during the election?

What percentage of the vote is audited?

Is the chain-of-custody audited up to the central tabulator?

Is the system notified in any way an audit is taking place?

Also, are there specific stipulations regarding network connectivity (ethernet, wireless, modem)?

Kip

[Carolab]

14. Kip, I don't but PM me for more information. n/t

[Fly by night]

8. You also need to deal with wireless capabilities of optical scans.

At a review of ES&S equipment in my county, I go the rep to show me how the equipment was programmed to count ballots. In addition to the slot into which a hard disk would be placed, he revealed that the precinct-based optical scan also had both modem and wireless communication capability. I see no reason for an optical scan to have either of those capabilities myself. It looked like they could be disabled with a key. But again, what is the logic and justification for either a modem or wireless capability in what should be a secure vote-counting device?

[Stevepol]

9. None. No logic whatever.

[FogerRox]

10. Nice move FLy By Night---

Voting machine demos are a great way to get details like that

[Bill Bored]

11. Good. Now what about recounts?

Let's say the audit (what percentage?) is clean and there's still a mathematical chance of the outcome being wrong. What's your next step?

We are getting there people!

I think they already have a good bit about networking in MN. They don't allow any, right Carolab???