By Luther Weeks on April 18, 2017
The Middletown Press and a Facebook video by Lesser indicate he is exploring a run for Secretary of the State.
To our knowledge Lesser is the 1st candidate officially filing.
Posted in National
By Luther Weeks on April 18, 2017
The worlds largest democracy has offered the public a chance to hack its unverifiable voting machines. The details are skimpy, history does not provide confidence, and while it may be a step in the right direction it is ultimately insufficient. See the article by George Washington University Professor Poorvi Vora: Hacking EVMs: The EC has issued a challenge. It must first accept the challenge it faces
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National
By Luther Weeks on April 12, 2017
Denise Merrill, Secretary of the State and President of the National Association of Secretaries of State and Neil Jenkins from Homeland Security spoke on NPR on election integrity. <listen>
We disagree with both their similar statements:
.”Because our system is highly decentralized there’s no way to disrupt the voting process in any large-scale meaningful way through cyber attacks because there’s no national system to attack,” [Merrill] said Tuesday at a hearing before the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on the impact of the critical infrastructure designation.
Jenkins was quoted as saying “having thousands of elections offices each with their own systems making hacking elections nearly impossible”
Posted in CT, Electronic Vulnerability, National, NonScienceNonsense
By Luther Weeks on April 6, 2017
Tuesday 
I participated in a forum/debate on the National Popular Vote Compact. Greenwich Time has a vary fair article on the event <read>
In one of the photos I am holding a 1118 page book that is free. Instead, I recommend two books that are shorter, that are worth reading, and worth much more than you will pay for them!
I also have some comments on the uniqueness of an event where individuals claim that Connecticut voters would appreciate more money in politics.
Posted in CT, National, National Popular Vote
By Luther Weeks on April 2, 2017
A short op-ed in the Courant from Bloomberg View, by Cathy O’Neil describes the risks of artificial intelligence algorithms used by the likes of Facebook and Google: Controlling A Pervasive Use Of Algorithms Critical
We should have concerns with algorithms beyond Artificial Intelligence. The same concerns apply to any algorithm (computer code/manual process), such as voting machines. We have no access to the code in our AccuVoteOS optical scanners. Yet we know from studies such as the California Top-To-Bottom-Review, Hacking Democracy’s Hursti Hack, and studies by UConn that the system is vulnerable to attack. We do not know and cannot know for sure if the software running on a particular AccuVoteOS and its memory card is correct and accurate.
Posted in CT, Electronic Vulnerability, HowDoWeKnow, Post-Election Audits
By Luther Weeks on March 28, 2017
Citizen Audit: Two Blows to Connecticut Election Audits
Leave Them Weaker, Less Credible
From the Press Release:
In spite of growing national concerns about election integrity, election credibility in Connecticut has suffered two devastating blows:
- The Connecticut General Assembly cut post-election audits in half from 10% to 5% of voting districts, and failed to fix glaring weaknesses in the state’s audit law.
- Shockingly, Connecticut has become the first state to replace verifiable hand-count audits with unverifiable electronic audits. Now the public can’t verify audit results.
“It need not be this way. Electronic audits can be manually verified without sacrificing efficiency,” said Luther Weeks, Executive Director of Connecticut Citizen Election Audit. “Because audits are conducted by the same officials responsible for conducting elections, audits must be transparent and publicly verifiable,” he said.
The Citizen Election Audit also found continuing problems with how municipalities conducted audits. “The Secretary’s Office should take the lead in ensuring that audits are complete, credible, and publicly verifiable,” Weeks said. “The public, candidates, and Secretary Merrill should expect local election officials to organize audits that produce accurate audit reports,” he said.
Posted in CT, Post-Election Audits, Reports
By Luther Weeks on March 19, 2017
Georgia and Cobb election officials are rejecting calls from advocacy groups for voters to use paper ballots while the FBI investigates a data breach at Kennesaw State University.
Voters will continue to use electronic voting machines during upcoming elections, said Candice Broce, spokesperson for Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. The use of paper ballots is reserved as a backup system in case there is a problem with the voting machines, she said…
Earlier this month, KSU announced a federal investigation at the Center for Elections Systems located on the Kennesaw campus to determine if there was a data breach that might have affected the center’s records, according to Tammy DeMel, spokesperson for the university.
When will they ever learn? We firmly believe that the days of paperless elections are coming to an end. It may take a few more years, yet we believe it is unlikely that any jurisdiction in the U.S. well make a major purchases of paperless voting equipment in the future. The useful life of most paperless equipment will end within the next decade or so.
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on March 7, 2017
Yesterday, we submitted testimony on a number of early voting bills and a bill likely submitted by the Registrars of Voters Association.
The primary reason to avoid expanded mail-in or no-excuse absentee voting is the opportunity for and documented record of absentee voting fraud. There are other reasons:
- Contrary to a touted benefit – early voting DECREASES turnout…
And a bill likely submitted by the Registrars of Voters Association.
As an election official, I am sympathetic to the wish of Registrars to make their jobs simpler. Yet, my sympathy ends when it results in barriers to participation in democracy for candidates and citizens.
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, Legislature 2017, Mail/Absentee Voting
By Luther Weeks on March 5, 2017
Last Monday we testified for S.B. 540, a bill that would increase audit transparency and public verifiability.
Later we noticed that Secretary of the State, Denise Merrill, submitted testimony opposing one provision of the bill and therefor recommending against the entire bill. Her testimony misinterpreted our bill, recommending against it based on something we did not ask for and was not part of the bill.
In response we wrote a follow-up letter to the GAE Committee.
Posted in Chain of Custody, CT Law, Electronic Vulnerability, Legislature 2017, Post-Election Audits
By Luther Weeks on February 28, 2017
Yesterday, we testified in support of our bill to improve the post-election audits, audit transparency, and ballot security.
- Common sense reforms to require all aspects of audits to be transparent and open to the public.
- Common sense reforms to establish minimal standards for ballot security.
- Electronically Assisted Manual Audits that are transparent and publicly verifiable, based on sound science.
Posted in Chain of Custody, CT, Post-Election Audits
