NIST Says Electronic Voting Without a Paper Record Cannot Be Made Secure

Photo Credit: Spiralz

According to an article that originally appeared in the Washington Post, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released draft recommendations stating that electronic voting without a paper record "cannot be made secure." Readers of this blog, as well as anyone who has been following the criticism of electronic voting systems will recognize that computer experts have had this concern for years.

NIST is the first federal agency to come to this conclusion and is significant because of the organization's role in the scientific community and in advising lawmakers. NIST employs 2,900 scientists, engineers and support staff and is home to NIST laboratories and the Baldridge National Quality Program. NIST advises the Election Assistance Commision, the organization formed by congress after the voting problems in Florida in 2000.

The organization condemned voting without a paper record and recommended voting with paper ballots that can be read by optical scan machines. This provides the individual voter with the ability to verify that his or her intent was captured accurately and gives election officials the ability to verify the accuracy of the system or an individual race through a recount of the votes.

NIST says in its report that the lack of a paper trail for each vote "is one of the main reasons behind continued questions about voting system security and diminished public confidence in elections." The report repeats the contention of the computer security community that "a single programmer could 'rig' a major election." (Washingtonpost.com)

This draft finding is significant because five states use electronic voting without a paper record: Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, and South Carolina.

The following states, along with the District, use such systems in at least some jurisdictions, sometimes in conjunction with optical-scan systems that provide a paper record:

Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, New Jersey (which will switch to a paper-trail system by 2008), Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. (Source: Washingtonpost.com)

To read the NIST report, visit this site.

Miami Herald Reports that voting Machines Favor Republicans

Photo Credit: Mize2oo5

Sometimes machines seem to have a mind of their own. . . The Miami Hearld reports that voting machines in Florida are registering votes for Republican candidates even when the voters intend to vote for Democratic candidates. You can read the original article here and the article that appeared in British media here.

It seems that heavily used machines sometimes require calibration. It takes alert poll workers in busy precincts to identify the problem and either recalibrate the machines or take them out of service.

HBO Documentary: Hacking Democracy

HBO is currently running a documentary about the vulnerabilities in voting machines. Here is a description from the HBO website:

In 2002, Seattle grandmother and writer Bev Harris asked officials in her county why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their elections. Unsatisfied with their explanation, she set out to learn about electronic voting machines on her own. In the course of her research, which unearthed hundreds of reported incidents of mishandled voting information, Harris stumbled across an "online library" of the Diebold Corporation, discovering a treasure trove of information about the inner-workings of the company's voting system. Harris brought this proprietary "secret" information to computer security expert Dr. Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University, who determined that the software lacked the necessary security features to prevent tampering. Her subsequent investigation took her from the trash cans of Texas to the secretary of state of California and finally to Florida, where a "mini-election" to test the vulnerability of the memory cards used in electronic voting produced alarming results. . .

Ultimately, Bev Harris' research proved that the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local school board contests to the presidential race. With the electronic voting machines of three companies - Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia - collectively responsible for around 80 percent of America's votes today, the stakes for democracy are high.

Diebold, a manufacturer of a significant number of voting systems tried unsuccesfully to get HBO to cancel the documentary. Here is an article on their efforts with a link to their press release. The documentary is being shown on HBO during the months of November and December 2006. Here is a schedule.

The entire video was briefly available on Google Video but it has now been removed.

Election Day: Cross Our Fingers and Hope for the Best

Photo Credit: Spiralz

I just voted in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Ostensibly, everything went smoothly. Poll workers asked for my ID. I signed my name. They escorted me a voting machine and inserted the media card. I made my choices and watched as a paper receipt under glass recorded each page and then scrolled out of sight in preparation for the next voter. As I left, lines were short and supervisors were observing and helping voters where needed.

It's the things I can't see that worry me. Is the process secure? What happens behind the scenes? What opportunity is there for the results to be audited? With the proliferation of electronic voting, and the widely known vulnerabilities of the technology and procedures associated with voting, do the results still represent the will of the people or are we too late? Could a small group of people "hack the vote" for a city, state, or for the nation? I read somewhere that the discrepancy between exit polls and actual results is increasing with each subsequent election. Is this evidence of manipulation of the results?

Here is an overview of some of the concerns, from a blog specializing in PC technology.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Writes: Will the Next Election Be Hacked?

Illustration by Jonathan Barkat, Rolling Stone

This article, published recently in Rolling Stone is worth reading. Kennedy describes unexpected results and occuring after a "patch" was secretly applied by Diebold staff in Georgia in 2002. In addition, he cites a study of the results of electronic voting systems in the 2004 election in Florida, showing possible evidence that the election results were altered. "The data show with 99.0 percent certainty that a county's use of electronic voting is associated with a disproportionate increase in votes for President Bush. Compared to counties with paper ballots, counties with electronic voting machines were significantly more likely to show increases in support for President Bush between 2000 and 2004." (See UC Berkeley Study Shows E-Voting 'Irregularities' in Florida)

Read Diebold's response to the article here and Mr. Kennedy's comments on their response here.

Block the Vote Show by PBS is Available Online

The PBS Program NOW aired a segment focused on voting and the restrictive laws that are being enacted that will serve to limit the vote. Here is a link to the page that describes the show. You can view the video online by clicking here. Host David Brancaccio and Maria Hinojosa do a great job of examining the impact of these laws and the inconsistencies in the rationale for the new laws. For example, voting in person is being made harder while voting using absentee ballots is being made easier. Many question whether the relatively small number of fradulent ballots that are being case is worth the much larger number of people who are apt to be excluded from voting by the new procedures. In other words, is the "cure" worse than the "disease?"

You can also view the Now show "Down for the Count" describing the problems with electronic voting machines. The PBS description of the show is here, while the show can be viewed online here.

City Club of Cleveland Panel to Address "Does Your Vote Count?"

On Wednesday, September 27th at noon, a panel will talk about what went wrong in Cuyahoga County's May 2006 election and how to insure that future voting is timely, accurate, and reliable. Speakers include:

• Cleveland Municipal Judge Ronald Adrine, chair of the Cuyahoga Election Review Panel that investigated the causes and scope of problems that occurred in the county’s May primary elections
• Dr. Victoria Lovegren, a mathematics lecturer at Case Western Reserve University, computer scientist, and founder and director of Ohio Vigilance, a watchdog organization that investigates election abnormalities
• Cuyahoga County Board of Elections director Michael Vu.
• Moderator:Roslyn Talerico, vice president of the League of Women Voters-Cuyahoga Area, chair of the League of Women Voters of Ohio’s Juvenile Justice Committee, and representative of the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition.

Tickets are $15 for members and for $25 non members. You can view a live webcast by visiting www.cityclub.org

If you haven't kept up with the controversy on what happened with Cuyahoga County's election in May, here is a listing of resources to prepare for this event:

• Cuyahoga Election Investigation – See the Investigation links at the bottom of the page for copies of the two reports that have examined the Cuyahoga County election system.
• Some Major Sources of Voter Disenfranchisement in Cuyahoga County and Suggested Recommendations, Report to the Cuyahoga Election Review Panel, June 9, 2006, from The Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition
• Fixing the elections, a Plain Dealer summary of the recommendations from the panel that investigated May's election problems in Cuyahoga County
• Plain Dealer Index of Election News – There is not much on election reform but some of the articles they have written on the topic are shown here. [Either they have a special section on election problems that is buried in their website or they haven't set one up yet.]

New Film on Voter Suppression: American Blackout

A new film directed by Ian Inaba called American Blackout is being released today in New York and next week on DVD. The film chronicles efforts to suppress the black vote in in the elections of 2000 and 2004. The film is the winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Here's what is being said by reviewers:

Amazon.com: American Blackout chronicles the recurring patterns of disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who not only took an active role in investigating these election debacles but also found herself in the middle of one after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9-11 terrorist attacks. . . . American Blackout gains unprecedented access to one of the most controversial and dangerous politicians in America and examines the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence political dissent.

New York Times: By the time we reach the 2004 general election, the anger in “American Blackout” is palpable. As we listen to voters complain about roadblocks and false felony records, and watch the endless lines of black voters standing patiently in the rain in Ohio, it’s impossible to ignore the gravity of the film’s claims. Though occasionally inflammatory — one interviewee talks about being “slingshotted into slavery” — “American Blackout” isn’t a conspiracy rant. It’s a methodical compilation of questions and irregularities that deserves a wider audience.

Sundance Film Festival: Inaba reminds us that African Americans have long fought a war inside our country for their right to vote, and unfortunately that war rages on today. American Blackout emotionally revitalizes the core of our power as American citizens–the right to vote–and effectively reveals that the fate of black voters is inextricably tied to the fate of all Americans.— Shari Frilot

Visit the film's website to see the trailer, get on the mailing list, or to host a screening. You can click on the video below to watch it in this page.

The Myth of Fair Elections in America

Photo Credit: brainware3000

Read what The Guardian in Britain had to say about the elections in the United States.

One person, one vote. Count the totals. The one with the most wins. The beauty of democracy is its simplicity and its inherent fairness. It equalises everyone, even as it empowers everyone. What could go wrong? In America, it turns out, quite a lot. . .

Which makes the fact that America's system of voting is now even more suspect, more complicated, and more open to abuse than ever before so utterly shocking. Across the country a bewildering series of scandals or dubious practises are proliferating beyond control. The prospect of a 'second Florida' is now more likely not less. There are many - and not all of them are conspiracy theorists - who believed it may have happened in Ohio in 2004.

CNN's Lou Dobbs: Voting machines put U.S. democracy at risk

Read what Lou Dobbs had to say here

Here are excerpts:

But there is additional uncertainty about the outcome of our elections that is intolerable and inexcusable, and which could make the contested 2000 presidential election look orderly by comparison. As of right now, there is little assurance your vote will count. As we've been reporting almost nightly on my broadcast for more than a year, electronic voting machines are placing our democracy at risk. . .

The May primary election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, was nothing less than a complete debacle. A report from the Election Science Institute found the electronic voting machines' four sources of vote totals -- individual ballots, paper trail summary, election archives and memory cards -- didn't even match up. The totals were all different, and the report concluded that relying on the current system for Cuyahoga County's more than 1.3 million people should be viewed as "a calculated risk." Are we really willing to risk our democracy?

Princeton Researchers find Diebold AccuVote-TS is an Invitation to Election Fraud

Did you know that you can unlock and tamper with a voting machine using a hotel minibar key? Diebold's AccuVote-TS voting was examined by researchers from Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy. They demonstrate in this video (and in great detail in the technical paper found on their site) that evil doers can introduce a software program that steals votes, reproduces itself so that it spreads to other machines, and then erases itself to avoid discovery.

The executive summary for the study observes: "an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates." Visit their site for a copy of the complete study and the researcher's rebuttal to Diebold's criticism of their methods.

You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to see that we have major problems in the integrity of our election system. In the words of one of my favorite movies, Strange Days, The issue is not whether you are paranoid, the issue is, whether you are paranoid enough.

The Push for Voter Identification. . .

Photo Credit: Spikenheimer

The picture above isn't exactly the kind of identification that is being debated by elected officials and judges recently, but it gets the point across about the controversy.

The Blog Election Updates from Cal Tech brought this to my attention. The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that requires voters to show proof of citizenship in order to vote. House Republicans say that they are concerned about border security and the number of potentially fradulent voters. Democrats are concerned that the administration of this law will reduce the ability of the poor, the elderly and minority voters to vote. Courts in Missouri and Georgia have struck down similar state laws already.

According to a study by the League of Women Voters quoted in this article in the Los Angeles Times, in Ohio from 2002 to 2004 only .00004% of voters (86 people out of 196.139,871) [If any readers can locate this study, please post a link in the comments.]

WeCount2006.org Fair Elections Conference: Sept 29th-30th in Cleveland

Join authors, academics, and concerned citizens for a day and a half conference on reforming elections in the United States. The event is being organized by Wecount2006. There will be speakers, workshops and screenings of several documentary films. Speakers include:

Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One, Too (Unless We Stop Them)

Bev Harris, the Founder and Director of Black Box Voting. She is a pioneer in the election reform movement and has been described as the "Erin Brockovich of elections" (Salon.com) and "the godmother" of the election reform movement. (Boston Globe)

The conference is free but reservations and a modest donation are requested. Visit http://wecount2006.org/ for more information.

Ways to Alter an Election Are limited Only by Your Imagination

Illustration by Matt Mahurin, Rolling Stone

Two articles came to my attention this week that underscored my concern that the implemention of electronic voting nationally is not secure.

Computer scientist Avi Ruben wrote an article in Forbes that is reproduced in Salon.com that outlines multiple ways that people could corrupt the counting of votes made electronically without being dectected. His solution is to use computer technology to collect and print a paper representation of voter intentions that could then be read and verified using existing scanner technology.

The second article shows how two untrained women were able to hack a Diebold voting machine in 4 minutes with tools that cost less than $15. By removing the machines memory card and replacing it with a card that's been tampered with, the results could be altered without a trace. Black Box Voting was the source and has more extensive pictures and commentary. They also discuss the security limitations of allowing poll workers to take the machines home with them at night for safekeeping.

Ohio Makes Mother Jones List of the 11 Worst Places to Vote

Ohio has hit the trifecta by being recognized 3 times on Mother Jones' ignominius list of the 11 worst places to vote. Franklin County made the list for buying too few machines resulting in long lines. Cuyahoga County made the list for incompetence in the staffing and implementation of election procedures. The state of Ohio was also listed for having a person responsible for setting the rules for elections also running for office. Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is that person. Illustration By: Harry Campbell

Lake County scraps old electronic voting machines

It doesn't pay to be at the bleeding edge of new technology. Lake County learned this the hard way. The Plain Dealer reports that Lake County is scrapping 7 year old voting machines that it paid $3 million to acquire. The machines are not complient with the order by Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell that all counties use electronic machines that also produce a paper record. How'd I miss that order? Maybe there's hope for verifiable voting in Ohio yet!

Photo credit: Sascha Pohflepp

"Watch Out for Voting Day Bugs"

That's the advice from former Governors Richard Celeste (Democrat), and Dick Thornburgh (Republican). They chaired a report that was generated recently by the National Academies' National Research Council on Electronic Voting. Their article is nicely summarized here. You can read the full article August 28, 2006 article on the website of the Washington Post. (Photo Credit: Rob Holland)

Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression.

What do voter suppression and the movie The Matrix have in Common? Rather than people controlling politicians through their votes, author Spencer Overton contends that politicians control our nation through a matrix of election rules that determine political outcomes.

Spencer Overton, professor of law at George Washington University and author of the book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression is interviewed by Farai Chideya on the News and Notes show hosted by Ed Gordon.

You can purchase the book on Amazon.com and stay updated on Professor Overton's activities at his website www.stealingdemocracy.com.

New York University's Brennan Center Finds that US Voting is Vulnerable

A group of experts from a variety of disciplines have found that voting equipment in place now leaves the voting process vulnerable to fraud and tampering. See the press release here and a PDF version of the report here: THE MACHINERY OF DEMOCRACY PROTECTING ELECTIONS IN AN ELECTRONIC WORLD

NPR reporter Farai Chideya interviewed the study's co-author Lawrence Norden from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York City

NPR host Diane Rehm interviewed Professor Norden along with several computer experts (including Avi Ruben), an attorney and Congressman Thomas Davis, III, Republican of Virginia on July 5, 2006. In this segment, Linda Lamone, adminstrator of elections, State of Maryland opined that most voters are satisfied with electronic voting systems and criticized the report because it undermines confidence in the election system.

9-10-06 I had looked for but couldn't find a more recent interview done by Diane Rehm with Avi Rubin. Phil Windley posted this information about the interview in his blog Technometria:

Diane Rehm is interviewing Avi Rubin about his new book Brave New Ballot today. Avi does a great job of explaining in simple, understandable language why electronic voting is inherently insecure. I’ve picked up the book and look forward to reading it.

Avi mentions that adding verifiable paper records to the electronic voting machines significantly improves the level of confidence that one can have in the voting system. There are 35 states that have a law, administrative rule, or simply bought such systems. Utah is one of them, having a law that requires the verifiable paper trail. It could be improved, but its a good start.