EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Stanley A. Klein
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/30/2005
General Comments
Comment : | VULNERABILITY OF VOTING MACHINES TO ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE Computers and other digital electronic devices operate at voltages in the range of around 2 to 12 volts. Chips are generally designed to withstand temporary overvoltages in the range of 100 to 200 volts. However, electronic equipment is vulnerable to the effects of electrostatic discharge (ESD) – static electricity generated from materials in clothing, floor coverings, chairs, and other common items, and discharged when a person touches equipment or components connected or charged to different voltage levels. The damage from ESD does not necessarily occur immediately. It can be latent, weakening the protective elements of chips and making them vulnerable to damage caused by a later incident such as a voltage surge, or it can cause intermittent malfunction – with the equipment sometimes working properly and sometimes malfunctioning. Latent damage can occur years after the original ESD event weakened a chip. The following table shows typical ESD voltages generated by various pollingplace relevant activities, and is based on a table provided by the Electrostatic Discharge Association in an introduction to ESD (posted at http://www.esda.org/basics/part1.cfm).