National | CTVotersCount.org

Conference Call With Debra Bowen

Debra Bowen is California Secretary of the State responsible for the Top To Bottom Review, and the decertification of electronic voting machines from Diebold and two other vendors: <transcript and conference call>

Some people have criticized the Review as being biased and not conducted in the real world, and it certainly was not, it was conducted in a laboratory setting. The major criticism has been that it did not take into account the physical security that is used in many counties–most counties–but I think it is a mistake to assume that an attacker who wants to interfere with the outcome of an election will not find a way to get their hands on either a voting machine that is used in the polling place, one of the memory cards that is used, or on some other piece of equipment. Or the source code itself…

I’m often asked by people what they can do to support my efforts and to ensure that their votes are accurately counted. My answer would be to get even more involved. Clearly members of the Courage Campaign are already involved, but I’m asking people to go beyond that. If you have concerns about their being an adequate number of well-trained poll workers and you can afford a day, please become a poll worker.

Thorns In The Side or Unappreciated Donors?

“Hackers Welcome” is a refreshing read, at least for the technically inclined.Â A great comparison of how different companies treat the discovery of software problems by outsiders – as things to be covered up or as gifts to be appreciated.Â Insiders who do the same are either appreciated, suppressed, or out themselves for our benefit – we call them Whistle-blowers.

That kind of stonewalling, enmity and miscommunication has long characterised relations between hackers and software developers, says Jennifer Granick, a cyber-law attorney who represented Lynn in his legal battles…But that attitude is now changing. Software developers are learning that cooperating with hackers is better than ignoring or attacking reports of exploitable holes in software…
Companies, including 3Com’s TippingPoint division and iDefense, offer to buy vulnerabilities from hackers for several thousand dollars apiece, promising to inform the vendor of exploitable flaws.
“Had (Diebold) engaged with us, they’d have a reasonably secure system,” says Felten[Professor, Princeton University]. “Instead, they stonewalled, and look where it got them.”

My only caveat is that the reasoning applies to many people who do not fit the definition of “Hackers”.

CT Voting and Audit Stories – NJ Certification Problems

Doubts Cast On Voting Machines. Westport News – An excellent summary of the concerns with the AccuVote-OS in Connecticut.

Cromwell Vote To Be Audited. Middletown Press – “Town officials learned of the audit in a telephone call from a reporter Thursday night.” I wonder what the official plans are to notify registrars that their towns have been chosen and the municipal clerks who will need to randomly select offices for audits?

N.J. To Miss Voting Deadline, Cherry Hill Courier Post – Optical Scan will not be certified to meet Jan 1 deadline: “The New Jersey Institute of Technology conducted its first round of testing this past summer on three of the machines. Although the machines received a ‘good bill of health,’ Milgram said the results did not meet the criteria the office set in the spring.” More details in the NY Times and the blog from Larry Norden of the Brennan Center.

Random Drawing

Updated: 9/14 and 9/16

Yesterday I attended and participated in the public random drawing of districts for audit. Hopefully, in the next day or two CT-N will put up the video. I did manage to catch some of the rerun late last night. (Note: I will keep updating this entry as more information and the video becomes available.)

Read the Good News, The Not So Good News, and What We We Can Learn, below:

Continue reading “Random Drawing”

ConnPost Covers Election Glitches

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said there were only a “very, very small number of issues” with the new machines…
Bysiewicz said that of the 125 Connecticut precincts using the machines Tuesday, only six reported significant problems with their machines.

As a retired software engineer I would say this is not surprising, given the challenges of rolling out a new system with little opportunity to phase the system in one location at a time. Yet, it means we can expect perhaps 30 – 40 “significant” problems in November. Of course it is all context. We would be quite disturbed to learn that trucks going over Avon mountain had a 95% certainty of working brakes or that the state effectively guarded the Social Security numbers for 95% of the taxpayers. But a machine problem is not the same as uncovering a problem with an election – we hope that procedures were followed and that they will prevent these problems from compromising an election.

We can also choose to have blind faith that without adequate audits, without software transparency, and with secret programming, through miracles and trust in human nature our votes were counted accurately, that these six visible problems were not joined by invisible errors and intentional fraud.

One item in the article gives one pause in considering the integrity of such mitigating procedures:

While at Thomas Hooker School, about 75 ballots could not be immediately counted due to problems with the paper, because of the humidity. The paper ballots were too damp and the voting machine could not process them. The ballots were taken to the Town Clerk’s Office to be counted. It wasn’t immediately known when the count would take place.

Read the full story.

Voting Vendor and Yale Professor – Suggest Changes To Election Procedures

Dori Smith aired the second segment of a four part series on voting integrity, yesterday at 5:00 PM on WHUS. Once again, I highly recommend listening to the audio and reading the transcript while also marking your calendar for next week. Also review segment one.

This segment has further interviews with John Silvestro, President of LHS, our voting machine vendor and Professor Michael Fisher of Yale University and President of TrueVoteCT.

Mr. Silvestro suggests that the problem of ignored or violated procedures, like the one in the 2nd District in November, 2006, can be handled by auditing fully the machines involved:

Then automatically in my mind that precinct should come into the post election audit OK? And that you know although you are going to select 10% that one precinct may end up being, and it should, end up being one of the automatic entries into that 10% post election audit. And thatâ€™s the beauty of post election audits is that you can take situations that arise on election day and say OK. We want to do 10% of 793 with whatever that comes to, 79 or letâ€™s call it 80 precincts. But we had problems in precinct you know A, B, C and D or E and F and whatever. Eight precincts? Those eight are already included and the other 72 are going to be randomly withdrawn. And thatâ€™s how I believe you would do this. – John Silvestro

I agree that Mr. Silvestro has a basically good idea, yet I also have three concerns:

Continue reading “Voting Vendor and Yale Professor – Suggest Changes To Election Procedures”

A Timely Reminder – Closing In On 2008

From Steven Levy in Newsweek: <read>

But we’re electing a new president next year, and it’s so late in the game that the only measures to stop another mistrusted election are stopgaps. California’s secretary of State recognizes that. Plenty of citizens get it, too. Why aren’t more elected officials standing up for our elections?

Federal Election Assistance Commission Rigged Election Report – Sen Dodd, Please Investigate

A Washington Post articles describes a report watered down by the Election Assistance Commission.Â You will need a free password and Id to view the article.

Because my approach to election issues tends to be more closely aligned with Democrats, I was paired with a Republican co-author. To further remove any taint of partisanship, my co-author and I convened a bipartisan working group to help us. We spent a year doing research and consulting with leaders in the field to produce a draft report. What happened next seems inexplicable. After submitting the draft in July 2006, we were barred by the commission’s staff from having anything more to do with it…

Yet, after sitting on the draft for six months, the EAC publicly released a report — citing it as based on work by me and my co-author — that completely stood our own work on its head. (emboldening added)

As you may or may not know, Senator Dodd sits as Ranking Member on the Committee that created the Help America Vote Act and the Election Assistance Commission. Perhaps it would be a good time to drop Senator Dodd a note and ask for oversight and an investigation.

Continue reading “Federal Election Assistance Commission Rigged Election Report – Sen Dodd, Please Investigate”

Wed 8/29 5:00 PM – Dori Smith Interview with LHS President – Don’t Miss It

Dori Smith, Producer of TalkNationRadion will air an interview with LHS President John Silvestro, Wednesday August 29th, at 5:00pm on the air and online at WUHS. She has also provided a preview and extensive background.

LHS is the distributor of Diebold Premier election equipment and services to Connecticut. Once again, hats off to Dori for great reporting and great service to the voters of Connecticut.

There is a lot to absorb in the preview, I will be reading it and listening in tomorrow. Let me provide a couple of teasers:

Continue reading “Wed 8/29 5:00 PM – Dori Smith Interview with LHS President – Don’t Miss It”

Category: National