EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | James C. Johnson III
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/9/2005
General Comments
Comment : | As much as I would like to support this process of voting system certification, I find it extremely difficult. This process is so important to the functioning of our democracy that I find it difficult to follow the logic being used in developing these specifications, developing and maintaining voting system. Having tracked this process from the IEEE through the TGDC and EAC process, I personally find it disturbing that recommendation by security experts such as Dr. Rivest and his subcommittee have been consistently weakened, while partisan election officials were allowed to shape the standards to facilitate undetectable abuse. We start with the fact that this is a set of VOLUNTARY Voting System Guidelines. They have been shaped [at the IEEE level] largely by voting system manufacturer’s that dominate the study groups, and whose main concern is making a profit, and who have no fiduciary responsibility. At the TGDC level election officials further weakened the standards, largely removing any serious efforts to mandate security. These MINIMUM specifications (especially with respect to security and integrity) that have resulted are also flawed and open to wide interpretation. The Independent Testing Authorities are hired by the manufacturers to test their systems. There are no penalties to either the manufacturer or the ITA when systems that are deployed with flaws.