brainstorms

Sunday May 14, 2006

brave new ballot

i pre-ordered a copy of avi rubin's brave new ballot: the battle to safeguard democracy in the age of electronic voting coming out in september. [have you ordered yours?] it may well be the most important book on security and democracy i will read this year. [i worry that some of the more delusional canadian politicians may be tempted to replace our simple paper ballots with some badly programmed, touchscreen driven bag of silicon...]

current: ed felten's blog entry about harri hursti's report. to quote:

2001: Doug Jones produces a report highlighting design flaws in the machines that became the Diebold touchscreen voting machines.
July 24, 2003: Hopkins/Rice study finds many security flaws in Diebold machines, including ones that were pointed out by Doug Jones.
September 24, 2003: SAIC study finds serious flaws in Diebold voting machines. 2/3 of the report is redacted by the state of Maryland.
November 21, 2003: Ohio’s Compuware and InfoSentry reports find critical flaws in Diebold touchscreen voting machines
January 20, 2004: RABA study finds serious security vulnerabilities in Diebold touchscreen voting machines.
November, 2004: 37 states use Diebold touchscreen voting machines in general election.
March, 2006: Harri Hursti reports the most serious vulnerabilities to date discovered.

[recommended listening: tbd]