Questionable statements on KBDI-12

["Pete Klammer" <pklammer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Ms. Griffin -

You seem to be misinformed, or your information is incompletely researched,
regarding voter-verified paper election equipment.

Transcript from your KBDI-12 appearance this week:

"""

Moderator: "What's the problem with just having electronic voting that spits
out a receipt?  Why is that such a big deal?"

Faye Griffin: "It's fine with us, as soon as there is something available.
Right now there's not anything that's certified to do that."

Joe Pezzillo: "What if the voters asked for it?"

Faye Griffin: "If the voters couls ask for one right now, I could not do
it."

"""

To the contrary, there are several systems with certification already or
underway in time for the next election:

The Avante VoteTrakker model 4.4.3 has NASED #03120000443-1990.

Two Avante products are listed on the Election Center's page at
http://www.electioncenter.org/about/nased3.htm

The California Ad Hoc Touch Screen Task Force report said that there
was, at the time of that report, at least one certified system.  This
is such a widely known report that it is hard to imagine a state
elections official saying the actual number was zero.

Additionally it could be noted that a Vogue (now Sequoia) AutoMark
ballot printer together with a scanner would provide both an 
accessible interface and a paper ballot, although not certified
as "a DRE with a voter-verified audit trail".


First of all, there are NO Federal standards just the FEC guidelines
and there are NO HAVA guidelines (yet). The ITA (independent testing
authority) 
process is not
required by the Federal government, it is only recommended and
required by a state if they adopted the set of FEC guidelines.
(Note that 1/3 of the states never adopted the 1990 set.) Nothing
prevents a state from certifying and using a voting system (or
components) that does not conform to the FEC guidelines or does
not have ITA certification.

Secondly, states have ALWAYS had the option to accept the FCC
guidelines or not, as well as the right to ADD their own additional
criteria (and many do) as to what the voting machines must have.
The absence of the voter verified paper audit trail from the FEC
guidelines does not PREVENT any state from adopting it as an
additional requirement (and an increasing number are starting to do so).

And thirdly, the FEC/ITA process does not, in any way, guarantee a
secure voting system product.  In particular, COTS
(commercial-off-the-shelf) components used inside of the voting
system are given a blanket exemption from inspection (whether they
are secure components or not), and there is no real system of controls
applied to ensure that the products that are used by the states are the
same as those that were inspected (as California discovered).

Finally, there ARE voter-verifiable systems that HAVE passed certification:

According to  http://www.accupoll.com/News/PressReleases/2004-04-06.html:

	"AccuPoll (OTCBB:ACUP - News), a developer of direct recording
electronic (DRE) voting systems, and AmCad, a leader in the implementation
of automated technologies and solutions for state and local government
agencies, today announced a comprehensive agreement to distribute and
support AccuPoll's federally qualified voting system featuring a voter
verifiable auditable paper trail (VVPAT)...
	"AccuPoll recently announced the federal qualification of their DRE
voting equipment and is now one of the only developers to offer a VVPAT
system designed to meet the stringent new requirements of HAVA. "

According to
http://www.essvote.com/index.php?section=press_item&press_id=85:

	"The device, called the ES&S AutoMARK, allows voters to mark ballots
privately and independently when using an optical scan voting system. The
Michigan Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired, an advocacy group with
around 300 members statewide, invited ES&S and ATS to conduct the election
using the ES&S AutoMARK to demonstrate the new technology...
	"The ES&S AutoMARK also helps jurisdictions with optical scan voting
systems nationwide comply with the requirements of the Help America Vote Act
(HAVA) of 2002, which requires all polling locations to be equipped with at
least one disability-accessible voting machine...
	"On March 9, production units were presented for certification under
the Federal Election Commission's 2002 voting standards, and hardware and
software components currently are being evaluated by independent testing
laboratories. ES&S and ATS expect to begin implementing the technology in
the fourth quarter of 2004. "

http://www.accupoll.com/News/PressReleases/2004-03-26.html  


AccuPoll becomes the first company to offer a federally-qualified electronic
voting system featuring a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) capable
of being both optically scanned and easily read by voters.

http://www.truvote.com/

TruVote has built in features which will effectively eliminate the
vote-counting problems encountered during the 2000 Presidential Election. It
is a very user-friendly touch screen system. Features have been incorporated
into the screen display that alert the voter if no selection has been made
for a particular office. Upon casting his or her ballot, the TruVote system
will provide to the voter with a receipt that includes a voter ID and a PIN
number. The receipt serves as evidence that the voter's ballot has been cast
and included in the machine's totals. As additional verification, the voter
will be able to use the Voter Audit Call-In or Voter Audit Internet
Connection for further assurance that his or her ballot has been cast and
counted in the total election results.

http://www.nased.org/NASEDQualifiedVotingSystems12-03-Present.pdf 
 
AccuPoll.  See:   http://www.accupoll.com/

I've been told, but can not confirm, that Populex's system has recently 
been likewise certified.

Engineers at Sequoia have told me that their printers for voter-verified 
systems will be certified by this fall; since the entire State of Nevada 
will be using these, I'm sure they will do everything they can to make 
that happen.

 --
Pete Klammer / ACM(1970), IEEE, ICCP(CCP), NSPE(PE), NACSE(NSNE)
    3200 Routt Street / Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033-5452
  (303)233-9485 / Fax:(303)274-6182 / Mailto:PKlammer@xxxxxxx
 Idealism may not win every contest, but that's not what I choose it for!