Asking The Right Questions About Electronic Voting

Many election officials look to electronic voting systems as a means for improving their ability to more effectively conduct and administer elections. At the same time, many information technologists and activists have raised important concerns regarding the security of such systems. Policy makers are caught in the midst of a controversy with both political and technological overtones. The public debate about electronic voting is characterized by a great deal of emotion and rhetoric. Asking the Right Questions About Electronic Voting describes the important questions and issues that election officials, policy makers, and informed citizens should ask about the use of computers and information technology in the electoral processâ€"focusing the debate on technical and policy issues that need resolving. The report finds that while electronic voting systems have improved, federal and state governments have not made the commitment necessary for e-voting to be widely used in future elections. More funding, research, and public education are required if e-voting is to become viable.

During the 2016 presidential election, America's election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and standards for voting, and recommends steps that the federal government, state and local governments, election administrators, and vendors of voting technology should take to improve the security of election infrastructure. In doing so, the report provides a vision of voting that is more secure, accessible, reliable, and verifiable.

The use of electronic voting systems has caused controversy in the media and among the general public, and has even come under the scrutiny of the law courts. it has become clear that the uncertainties surrounding the introduction of e-voting are rarely of a technical nature, but primarily raise political and societal concerns. The key issue is to ensure that the principles of free and fair elections are upheld, regardless of the voting method chosen. This handbook is written for governments and organisations considering whether or not to conduct e-voting pilot schemes and trials or to make e-voting a feature of their electoral system. it reviews relevant issues such as building and safeguarding trust in the system, The value of open-source software And The implications of a voter verifiable audit paper trail. Concrete e-voting issues are discussed in the framework of the electoral cycle. This handbook can be used as a stand-alone guide, but governments or organisations would benefit most by consulting it in conjunction with Recommendation Rec(2004)11 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting

Democracy has never been more vulnerable. The problem is right here in America. How to Sabotage an Election Become an election judge and carry a refrigerator magnet in your pocket Program every fifth vote to automatically record for your candidate Bury your hacked code Avi Rubin, a computer scientist at Johns Hopkins and a specialist in systems security knows something the rest of us don’t. Maybe we suspected it, maybe we’ve thought it, but we didn’t have proof. Until now. The electronic voting machines being used in 37 states are vulnerable to tampering, and because the manufacturers are not required to reveal—even to the government—how they operate, voters will never know if their votes are recorded accurately. Follow Rubin on his quest to wake America up to the fact that the irregularities in the 2004 elections might not have been accidents; that there are simple solutions that election commissions are willfully ignoring; that if you voted on an electronic machine, there’s a chance you didn’t vote the way you wanted to. Learn what you can do the next time you vote to make sure that your vote is counted. Imagine for a moment that you live in a country where nobody is sure how most of the votes are counted, and there’s no reliable record for performing a recount. Imagine that machines count the votes, but nobody knows how they work. Now imagine if somebody found out that the machines were vulnerable to attack, but the agencies that operate them won’t take the steps to make them safe. If you live in America, you don’t need to imagine anything. This is the reality of electronic voting in our country. Avi Rubin is a computer scientist at Johns Hopkins University and a specialist in systems security. He and a team of researchers studied the code that operates the machines now used in 37 states and discovered the following terrifying facts: The companies hired to test the election equipment for federal certification did not study the code that operates the machines and the election commissions employed no computer security analysts. All votes are recorded on a single removable card similar to the one in a digital camera. There is no way to determine if the card or the code that operates the machine has been tampered with. It’s very easy to program a machine to change votes. There’s no way to determine if that has happened. There were enough irregularities with the electronic voting machines used throughout the 2004 election to make anyone think twice about using them again. Avi Rubin has testified at Congressional hearings trying to alert the government that it has put our democracy at risk by relying so heavily on voting machines without taking the proper precautions. As he has waged this battle, he has been attacked, undermined, and defamed by a prominent manufacturer. His job has been threatened, but he won’t give up until every citizen understands that at this moment, our democracy hangs in the balance. There are simple solutions and, before you vote in the next election, Rubin wants you to know your rights. If you don’t know them and you use an electronic voting machine, you may not be voting at all.

If free and fair elections are the heart of our prized democratic system of government, the integrity of our electoral system must be beyond question. Yet all too often, flaws in the administration of our elections have undermined public confidence in the results. This volume is virtually unique in focusing closely on the procedural problems of our electoral system, including those posed by the computerization of voting systems. The author analyzes events in the electoral history of the United States (and, tangentially, of certain other nations) to reveal the particular dynamics of democratic electoral systems that permit purportedly free and fair elections to subvert rather than express the public will. Past electoral crises shedding light on our electoral deficiencies are chronicled in detail, allowing the author to diagnose systemic failures that can, he contends, be remedied in order to strengthen our democratic system. Chapters focus on current laws and procedures regarding voter registration, provisional ballots, absentee ballots, computerized voting systems, and the Electoral College. The author recommends specific reforms in all these areas that will safeguard our democratic heritage and ensure that the voice of the people is heard. The book presents often-complex material in lucid prose, illuminating issues vital to democracy.

Electronic voting has a young and attractive history, both in the design of basic cryptographic methods and protocols and in the application by communities who are in the vanguard of technologies. The crucial aspect of security for electronic voting systems is subject to research by computer scientists as well as by legal, social and political scientists. The essential question is how to provide a trustworthy base for secure electronic voting, and hence how to prevent accidental or malicious abuse of electronic voting in elections. To address this problem, Volkamer structured her work into four parts: "Fundamentals" provides an introduction to the relevant issues of electronic voting. "Requirements" contributes a standardized, consistent, and exhaustive list of requirements for e-voting systems. "Evaluation" presents the proposal and discussion of a standardized evaluation methodology and certification procedure called a core Protection Profile. Finally, "Application" describes the evaluation of two available remote electronic voting systems according to the core Protection Profile. The results presented are based on theoretical considerations as well as on practical experience. In accordance with the German Society of Computer Scientists, Volkamer succeeded in specifying a "Protection Profile for a Basic Set of Security Requirements for Online Voting Products," which has been certified by the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology. Her book is of interest not only to developers of security-critical systems, but also to lawyers, security officers, and politicians involved in the introduction or certification of electronic voting systems.

Digital technology and the Internet have greatly affected the political realm in recent years, allowing citizens greater input and interaction in government processes. The mainstream media no longer holds all the power in political commentary. Transforming Politics and Policy in the Digital Age provides an updated assessment of the implications of technology for society and the realm of politics. The book covers issues presented by the technological changes on policy making and offers a wide array of perspectives. This publication will appeal to researchers, politicians, policy analysts, and academics working in e-government and politics.