John
M. +44 (0)7976 157745
>
> Kudos to NIST on making this assessment,
Actually, what NIST is recommending is "Software Independence":
http://vote.nist.gov/meeting20061204.htm
http://vote.nist.gov/DraftWhitePaperOnSIinVVSG2007-20061120.pdf
Which, if adopted, would mean that paperless DREsof which
touchscreens are a subsetwill not be certifiable by the EAC when the
2007 VVSG come into effect in Dec. 2009. -Joe
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Joseph Lorenzo Hall
PhD Student, UC Berkeley, School of Information
<http://josephhall.org/>
From: David RR Webber <david@drrw.info>
To: election-services@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: Patrick Gannon <patrick.gannon@oasis-open.org>
Sent: Thursday, 30 November, 2006 2:13:49 AM
Subject: [election-services] FYI: BREAKING: NATIONAL STANDARDS INSTITUTE RECOMMENDSSCRAPPING TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING SYSTEMS!
Kudos to NIST on making this assessment,
DW
NATIONAL STANDARDS INSTITUTE TO RECOMMEND SCRAPPING DIRECT RECORDING ELECTRONIC TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING MACHINES!
Says Machines Should be Decertified! Also Says So-Called 'Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) Should Not Be Used' in Voting Systems!
Huge news. Michael Hickens of InternetNews.com has the scoop. Here's the highlights…
A federal agency is set to recommend significant changes to specifications for electronic-voting machines next week, internetnews.com has learned.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is recommending that the 2007 version of the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG) decertify direct record electronic (DRE) machines.
…
According to an NIST paper to be discussed at a meeting of election regulators at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., on Dec. 4 and 5, DRE vote totals cannot be audited because the machines are not software independent.In other words, there is no means of verifying vote tallies other than by relying on the software that tabulated the results to begin with.
The machines currently in use are "more vulnerable to undetected programming errors or malicious code," according to the paper.
The NIST paper also noted that, "potentially, a single programmer could 'rig' a major election."
This is incredibly tremendous news!
Appropos of the point we tried to make loudly in an article here at BRAD BLOG earlier today, in which we tried to make clear that paper trails on touch-screen machines (versus paper ballots as used with optical-scan or hand-counted systems) are not an adequate solution to the nation's — or even Florida 13's — current voting dysfunction, NIST agrees that paper trails don't cut it:
The NIST is also going to recommend changes to the design of machines equipped with paper rolls that provide audit trails.
Currently, the paper rolls produce records that are illegible or otherwise unusable, and NIST is recommending that "paper rolls should not be used in new voting systems."
…And, of course, BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger and erstwhile election watchdog/champion John Gideon of VotersUnite.org — previously a supporter of the so-called Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) "solution", such as the one which would be standardized by Rep. Rush Holt's HR550 election reform legislation — concurs now that VVPAT on touch-screen and DRE systems is no longer a viable option.
Joining a growing group of folks who have changed their view on this point in the wake of the various disasters of 2006's Election Meltdown, he's quoted by Hickens thusly:
Many former advocates of VVPAT, including John Gideon, executive director of VotersUnite, now favor requiring that all votes be recorded on paper ballots.
"DREs are unacceptable as voting devices and … the addition of a VVPAT on a DRE is only a placebo to make some voters feel more comfortable," Gideon said in an e-mail.
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Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG