Election Reform, Fraud, & News 12/6/06-WaPo: End Of Era For Paperless Voting?

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud, & News 12/6/06-WaPo-End Of Era For Paperless Voting?

"This seems to mark the end of an era" for paperless electronic voting”

Panel Backs Guideline Favoring Voting-Machine Verification

By Cameron W. Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 6, 2006; Page A09

A federal panel voted yesterday to begin developing a national standard that could result in the gradual phasing out of the paperless electronic voting machines in use across the Washington region and in many parts of the country.

The "next generation" of voting systems should have an independent means of verifying election results, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee said. The standard would have to be adopted by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

"This seems to mark the end of an era" for paperless electronic voting, said Doug Chapin, director of electionline.org, a nonpartisan organization that tracks changes in the country's election systems.

The commission and its advisory panel have yet to determine when the new standard would go into effect and how it would apply. A report prepared by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology last week said the new standard would not be implemented until 2009 at the earliest.

More at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/05/AR2006120501355.html

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[texpatriot2004]

1. Music to my ears nm

[kpete]

2. Trouble with the Machines

Trouble with the Machines
Posted: 12/4/06

Thinking about Electronic Voting with the Help of Aviel Rubin’s Brave New Ballot (2006).

For those closely following the contest over Florida’s Thirteenth Congressional District, Aviel Rubin’s Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting (2006), supplies useful information and perspective. As he notes perhaps more often than necessary, Rubin has become famous for his contribution to the critique of paperless electronic voting. While he has taken specific aim at Diebold’s Accuvote machinery, his book helpfully brings together many of the themes—and the sharp political and other conflicts—shaping the struggles over the “machine.”

This is, of course, what the Thirteenth District debate is about : machines, which in this instance have been manufactured by ES&S. And while it is too early to forecast the outcome, there is always the danger—and some early signs—that what should be a “technical” question will degenerate at best into confusion about the stakes and, at worst, into a squabble infested with partisanship. Rubin shows how this has been the fate of this debate as it has unfolded nationally: with personality and academic clashes thrown in for good measure. Recently, as noted here, the Wall Street Journal threw a punch, apparently looking for just this kind of brawl.

Rubin professes some shock that as we consider the state of machinery and the need for reform, all participants in the discussion are not unhesitatingly attentive to expert evidence and united in the goal of verifiable, recountable voting. His book is not, therefore, a source of deep sophistication about politics, and his critics might even suggest that Rubin’s naiveté in political matters cost him dearly from the moment that he stepped into the political and public relations confrontation between paperless DRE enthusiasts and their equally committed adversaries.

But Rubin’s account, though bogged a bit down with the history of his own very personal odyssey, helps lay people who are truly interested in the subject sort out the key questions. The question, to start with fundamentals, is not whether machines are “bad,” destined to fail and only kept in service by venal manufacturers and scheming partisans. There is little doubt that, with more money and effort not so far invested, “we can build robust and reliable high-tech systems.” Brave New Ballot at 36. We have not reached this point, and it is hardly necessary for someone to fall into the Luddite trap to acknowledge that whatever the appeal of user-friendly electronic voting—that however much, as Rubin concedes, voters may “love” it (id. at 102)—meaningful security and reliability flaws have been detected in DREs. Rubin is not alone among the critics, though he may be among those most interviewed; nor should critics have to agree on all the material points for reasonable people to conclude that overall, the critique is well-founded.

more at:
http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/news.html?AID=876

[kpete]

3. The Election Is in the Mail

The Election Is in the Mail



By RUTH GOLDWAY
Published: December 6, 2006
Washington

LAST Election Day, voters encountered myriad difficulties, from the unexplained glitch that temporarily halted Montana’s vote count to the 18,300 undervotes in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, to long lines, bad weather, inadequately trained workers, delayed or missing absentee ballots and complicated new identity forms. There was, however, one state where all went well: Oregon, where everyone votes by mail.

Since Oregon adopted Vote by Mail as its sole voting option in 1998, the state’s turnout has increased, concerns about fraud have decreased, a complete paper trail exists for every election, recounts are non-controvertible and both major political parties have gained voters. Moreover, in doing away with voting machines, polling booths, precinct captains and election workers, the state estimates that it saves up to 40 percent over the cost of a traditional election.

Vote by Mail could offer real advantages if it were adopted nationwide. Voters would not need to take time off from work, find transportation, find the right polling station, get babysitters or rush through reading complicated ballot initiatives. The country’s 35,000 post offices could provide information, distribute and collect voting materials and issue inexpensive residency and address identifications for voting purposes.

Perhaps most important, given the concerns about voting machine security, mail ballots cannot be hacked. Tampering or interfering with mail is a federal crime, and the United States Postal Service has its own law enforcement arm, which works closely with a variety of enforcement authorities including the F.B.I. Trained election clerks can take the time to check signatures without delaying or discouraging voters. And the advantages of a paper trail outshine the glitter of black box electronic gadgetry.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/opinion/06goldway.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[eridani]

15. "mail ballots cannot be hacked"

Opscan tabulators damned well can be though. Where are the mandatory audits? What do they do with ballots that are not able to be read by the machine?

[kpete]

4. Federal Advisory Committee Proposes Stronger E-Voting Guidelines

Federal Advisory Committee Proposes Stronger E-Voting Guidelines

A committee of the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission recommended that new election machines should be required to have paper or other software-independent means of auditing election results. But local, county and state officials would decide for themselves whether to replace existing systems.

By K.C. Jones
InformationWeek

Dec 5, 2006 06:11 PM

A federal advisory committee on e-voting voted Tuesday in favor of a resolution to require paper or other software-independent means of auditing election results.

One day after deadlocking on a similar resolution, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee, which advises the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, agreed unanimously Tuesday to apply the requirement to new voting machines.

That means that local, county and state officials would decide for themselves whether to replace their existing electronic voting systems. New machines would have to meet the standard, if federal regulators adopt the advisory committee's guidelines. The requirement could be met by using paper trails or a new technology.

The committee passed the resolution after a National Institute of Standards and Technology released a draft report revealed that it is unlikely that programmers could create code that is resistant to all possible threats.

Researchers released their report on voting system vulnerabilities after interviews with election officials, voting machine vendors, computer scientists, other experts, as well as a review of literature and reliance on their own expertise.

more at:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196601754&subSection=Breaking+News

[kpete]

5. Security of newer voting machines questioned

Security of newer voting machines questioned

Rick Gleim demonstrates a voting machine made by Avante at the Orange County Fire Training Center in New Hampton on June 13, 2006. The new machines demonstrated by different companies, some with touch screens, are designed to replace the state's old lever machines.Times Herald-Record/TOM BUSHEY By Brendan Scott

Times Herald-Record
December 06, 2006
New York's sluggish embrace of new federal voting laws and the high-tech voting machines that go with them could prove to be a blessing.

A report issued by one of the federal government's premier research labs last week confirmed the worst fear of voting rights advocates: the paperless electronic voting machines now used by much of the country "cannot be made secure."

The National Institute of Standards and Technology also suggests that "optical scan" voting machines, which are often passed over in favor of flashier, touch-screen units, provide the only secure voting method.

That's what voting rights advocates have been saying all along. They argue the report should serve as a warning for New York counties as they prepare to buy their first electronic voting machines next March.

more at:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061206/NEWS/612060356/-1/NEWS

[kpete]

6. Voting machines need paper trail

Our Say:
Voting machines need paper trail

By THE CAPITAL EDITORIAL BOARD
In Maryland, last month's election came off about as smoothly as could be expected. But it didn't eliminate a source of lingering unease for many voters.

The state's new electronic voting machines generate no paper trail for use in recounts. If irregularities are suspected, all anyone can do is double-check the vote totals reported by the machines.

Those skeptical about electronic voting got ammunition last week from a draft report from the experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The acronym-crammed 14-page document concludes that paperless voting systems aren't secure and comes down on the side of "software-independent" optical-scan machines that count paper ballots.

No one is sure if this report will affect the decisions of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which is charged with drawing up with guidelines for the nation's voting systems. But the document provides food for thought as Maryland's elected officials return to the issue.

more at:
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2006/12_05-19/OPN

[kpete]

7. FL: Still No Winner in Florida's 13th District

12/ 6/2006

News of aspiring 2008 presidential candidates may have pushed the just-concluded midterm elections off the front pages, but one 2006 story remains without an end -- the ongoing legal fight over the results in Florida's 13th Congressional District.

At issue is the high rate of "undervoting" in the vote tally, as some 18,000 ballots recorded votes for other offices in Sarasota County but not for the congressional race between auto dealer Vern Buchanan (R) and banker Christine Jennings (D). That undervote rate was six times higher than in the other counties of the district.

Florida election authorities certified Buchanan's 369-vote victory on Nov. 20, but Jennings has sued the state and the manufacturer of the touch-screen voting machines used in the county in hopes of getting to the bottom of the matter.

"This is not about Republicans and this is not about Democrats," Jennings said when announcing the lawsuit. "It's about fixing a broken voting system."

Jennings has asked a state court to either declare her the winner or schedule a re-vote. Meanwhile, Buchanan has moved forward with his plans to take over the seat in the 110th Congress, preparations that include hiring Dave Karvelas, a longtime political hand of defeated Rep. Nancy Johnson (Conn.), as his chief of staff.

While the incoming Democratic House majority is sure to use the 13th District as an example of the need for a paper trail for touch-screen voting machines, it seems unlikely that the party will get involved in the legal fight between Jennings and Buchanan. Asked about the situation, a spokeswoman for incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would say only: "We're monitoring the situation."

more at:
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/thefix/

[kpete]

8. It’s Time for the House to Pick Up the Pieces in Florida’s 13th District

It’s Time for the House to Pick Up the Pieces in Florida’s 13th District
By Richard L. Hasen
Special to Roll Call
December 6, 2006

Remember the infamous “butterfly ballot” of Palm Beach County, Fla., in the 2000 presidential election? Back then, poor ballot design appeared to have caused many supporters of Democrat Al Gore to vote for conservative third-party candidate Pat Buchanan for president, effectively allowing George Bush to win Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency. The courts said there was nothing that could have been done about the problems with the ballot even though there was strong evidence that more Florida voters came to their polling places intending to vote for Gore than for Bush.

read the rest:
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/hasen-fl13.pdf

[kpete]

10. (Too) Early Judgment about Florida Thirteen

Today, in Roll Call, two views are set out about the nature of the problem and the contours of a solution in Florida’s Thirteenth District.

The editors take the election to be representative of the unsettled and unsatisfactory state overall of election administration. They see a “warning” here; they call for the warning to taken seriously, and for action to be taken, prior to 2008. "A Warning in Florida," Roll Call (Dec. 6, 2006).

Rick Hasen agrees that election administrative practices, in Florida and elsewhere, remain unacceptably substandard but, judging the problems in the Thirteenth to have been more likely caused by ballot design than by machine malfunction, he assumes that the state legal process cannot deliver a resolution but that the House of Representatives can and should. In supplying this resolution, Hasen argues, the House will sound the right warning: “A side benefit will be that the controversy will focus attention on problems with election administration, and get Congress and the country thinking more about the problems with how we administer our elections.” Richard L. Hasen, "It’s Time for the House to Pick Up the Pieces in Florida’s 13th District," Roll Call (Dec. 6, 2006).

In both views there is the just measure of attention, with Florida once again as a leading indicator, to the inadequacy of current administration. But in Hasen’s case, there is also a rush to judgment, an early reading of the nature of the Florida Thirteen problem before the litigation is barely underway. There is a warning here, too: that our patience with election disputes is quick to run out, allowing political to replace legal argument. In Florida, a serious claim of machine malfunction has been made. It must be heard, not prejudged.

more at:
http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/news.html?AID=878

[kpete]

9. NIST Clarifies Import of Voting Machine Study

NIST Clarifies Import of Voting Machine Study
Dec 06, 2006 By Wayne Hanson

A discussion draft by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) on voting machines states: "Lack of an independent audit capability in DRE voting systems is one of the main reasons behind continued questions about voting system security and diminished public confidence in elections."

While some publications such as the Washington Post took the draft report as an outright condemnation of electronic voting, NIST replied that the draft was for discussion purposes and would be analyzed at a meeting that concluded earlier today.

"Recent news accounts discussing the vulnerabilities of electronic voting systems contained in the report titled Requiring Software Independence in VVSG 2007: STS Recommendations for the TGDC said NIST on its Voting Technology page, "have raised the question of whether the report's recommendations represent the official position of NIST. This draft report was prepared by staff at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the request of the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) to serve as a point of discussion at its Dec. 4-5, 2006, meeting. Prepared in conjunction with the Security and Transparency Subcommittee (STS) of the TGDC, the report is a discussion draft and does not represent a consensus view or recommendation from either NIST or the TGDC."

more at:
http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/102720

[Algorem]

11. Cuyahohio-"Word on street is Michael Vu is out as director of the BOE"

http://www.freetimes.com/story/4489

ROOM WITHOUT A VU

Word on the street is Michael Vu is out as director of the Board of Elections and Republican state Senator Bob Spada of North Royalton is already measuring for new curtains.

Setting Vu up as the fall guy for the voting woes of Cuyahoga County may well have been in BOE chairman Bob Bennett's playbook all along, but replacing him with Bob Spada might be a hasty move. After all, Spada shows signs of independent thought and might not bend so easily to the whims of his Republican cohort.

In the Ohio legislature, Spada has been a force to reckon with. His sponsored bills slide through the senate so quickly they should call him Senator Metamucil. In the current executive session, Spada has sponsored 18 bills and co-sponsored 131. And based on the bills themselves, this man is slightly to the right of Dirty Harry. His bills include creating "One Nation Under God" license plates for Ohio drivers and new rules limiting access to public records...

The timing of Vu's rumored departure may save him a day in court. A criminal trial for three BOE staffers accused of hand-selecting a recount was supposed to begin this week, but has been postponed to January 22, as defense attorneys fight Bill Mason's office for access to a secret file put together by the BOE's former lawyer, Kathleen Martin, before she died(?). According to a source close to the case, the BOE staffers were offered a plea deal in exchange for "giving up Vu." They declined.



Thousands voted illegally
Cuyahoga failed to ensure signatures

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/116531281922750.xml&coll=2

Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Joan Mazzolini
Plain Dealer Reporter

Nearly 12,000 people in Cuyahoga County cast votes illegally on Election Day, without signing the election books or, likely, showing identification as required by a new state law.

In 533 of the 570 voting precincts in Cuyahoga County, more voters cast ballots Nov. 7 than signed in, according to board records.

With some polling places, the numbers were off by more than 100. But the differences at 144 of the locations were fewer than 10 each.

Elections officials want to figure out what happened to avoid a repeat of the problems in future elections....




letters to schmeditor-

http://www.cleveland.com/letters/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1165097760103590.xml&coll=2

Still tweaking vote mechanics

Are commissioners right in scrapping touch screens?

Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Plain Dealer reported Wednesday that Cuyahoga County Commissioners Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora have called for re-evaluating and possibly scrapping the touch- screen voting system currently used in Cuyahoga County.

I applaud their courage in taking this politically difficult step. It is without a doubt the right thing to do. Far better to make the necessary capital expenditures now to ensure a functional system than it is to continue to pay the costs, both in taxpayer dollars and in diminished public confidence, of the problems and fixes required by the current system.

The citizens of Cuyahoga County should support this re- evaluation and should thank Commissioners Hagan and Dimora for their leadership in working to remedy this problem.

...My experience as a presid ing judge during the November election convinced me that there is nothing wrong with touch-screen voting machines. Voters found them easy to use, and our wait time to vote during the busiest period averaged only 10 minutes. The main problem was the number of issues having very long texts. Voters who had not studied them did take a long time...

[kpete]

12. GET IT ON PAPER-

54 AM CST on Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Widespread use of electronic voting machines has boosted elections into the realm of greater speed, confidence and reliability. Usually.

It's those scattered episodes of glitches and high suspicion that tell us the job of securing the vote is far from over.

Like any electronic or mechanical device, voting machines get bollixed up. What office worker hasn't called the IT department in panic over a frozen computer? How many of us have dealt with flawed software that needs patching?

The simple problem is that balky voting machines store critical information that they can't or won't disgorge.

Case in point is last month's election in Florida (where else?) to succeed (who else?) Rep. Katherine Harris, of hanging-chad fame. The vote in one county showed an unlikely undercount of 18,000 in a race decided by 369 votes. The ensuing recount won't dissipate simmering controversy, because the machines lack any paper record to support their totals.

more at:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-paper_06edi.ART.State.Edition1.3e3ea5b.html

[kpete]

13. Learning from Cuyahoga: Paper Tape Doesn't Work

Learning from Cuyahoga: Paper Tape Doesn't Work

When we last visited Cuyahoga County, we learned why the economics of voting systems are on the side of scanned paper ballots. During today's visit to Cleveland, we'll see why the paper trail on electronic voting machines is a poor substitute for a ballot.

Part of the the non-profit, non-partisan Election Sciences Institute analysis of Cuyahoga's electronic voting machines was a recount of the May, 2006 primary. That recount compared the paper tape generated by the electronic voting machines with the memory cartridges that store vote counts. It found a lot of discrepancies:

17% of the tapes showed a discrepancy between 1-5 votes from the electronic tally. 2% of the tapes showed a difference of more than 25 votes.
1.4% of the tapes had missing ballots. 40 tapes (10%), were somehow compromised (taped together, illegible, blank, destroyed, etc)
The chain of custody of the paper rolls was poorly documented: 76% of the paper rolls had incomplete labeling, and 46% of them were blank.
When a paper tape contained results from multiple precincts, the information on the tape did not clearly identify the precinct from which the vote originated.

A lot of the errors in chain of custody, as well as with the illegible and blank tapes, could be chalked up to poor training of polling place workers. The study recommended substantial changes in the training of those workers. Even so, the study pointed out that the paper tape mechanism is a source of great risk to the validity of the whole voting process. When a tape jams, runs out of ink, or otherwise stops working, the physical record of the vote is lost.

more at:
http://www.fighting29th.com/2006/12/learning_from_cuyahoga_paper_t.html

[Algorem]

14. 'Dem paranoiacs' claimed Blackwell rigged '04 -Cleveland Plain Dealer

Dems' best friend was Blackwell
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Thomas Suddes
Plain Dealer Columnist

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/thomas_suddes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1165054289171230.xml&coll=2

...In fairness, if Blackwell's losing gubernatorial campaign did nothing else for his dimming reputation, it refuted - for all time - noisy claims by Democratic paranoiacs that Blackwell, as Ohio's chief election officer, rigged Ohio's 2004 presidential vote to favor the re-election of President Bush.

The fact is that rigging Ohio's vote for anyone - assuming that were even possible, given 88 bipartisan Boards of Elections - would require imagination and competence. Blackwell's campaign and his office have exhibited neither...


Grudge Match
Dems claim PD thinks they're morons.

By First Punch
Article Published Dec 6, 2006

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-12-06/news/firstpunch.html


Last week, Democratic statehouse leaders accused The Plain Dealer's editorial board of nursing a grudge against them.

In a letter to editorial chief Brent Larkin, Senators C.J. Prentiss and Teresa Fedor objected to two recent shots. One piece was ostensibly about the hypocrisy of self-styled reformers giving the vacated Senate seat of Attorney General-elect Marc Dann to shopping mall heiress Capri Cafaro. Implication: After two failed congressional runs, they had to throw her a bone to keep her money flowing.

Yet in an odd digression, the piece swerved out of its way to bash Fedor -- recently elected Senate Democratic Leader -- as "lightly regarded" by colleagues.

This wasn't the first time the donkey caucus got a Gordie Howe elbow from The Incredible Shrinking Newspaper. In a recent piece praising Senator Eric Fingerhut, The PD implied that the rest of the Dems are not particularly "bright" -- pretty much a lock bet when referring to any state official...