Re: new security plans for colorado voting, no audit improvements

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 01:57:44PM -0600, Neal McBurnett wrote:
> Well, the Secretary of State and the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the
> recent case have worked out some new security requirements for the
> election:
> 

<I've deleted Neal's comments that I don't want to comment on...>

> 
> > Security training shall include the following components:
> >  i. Proper application and verification of seals and seal-tracking logs;
> >  ii.  How to detect tampering with voting equipment, memory
> >     cards/cartridges, or election data on the part of anyone coming in
> >     contact with voting equipment, including county personnel, other
> >     election judges, vendor personnel, or voters;
> >  iii. How to detect suspicious behavior;
> >  iv. Ensuring privacy in voting booths;
> >  v.  The nature of and reasons for the steps taken to mitigate the
> >     security vulnerabilities of DREs;
> >  vi. V-VPAT requirements;
> >  vii. Chain-of-custody requirements for voting equipment, memory
> >     cards/cartridges, and other election materials;
> >  viii. Ballot security;
> >  ix. Voter anonymity.
> 
> Pay attention when you get your training, and see if you think these
> requirements have been followed.
> 

This is an interesting catch-all check list. Unfortunately, all these
points can't possibly be covered adequately in the time allotted in
the schedule of training classes - other than vague admonitions to 
"be careful". Sort of like the Yellow or Orange Alert from DHS. It's
CYA for SoS and nothing more. Especially if there is not a detailed
text of what is to be said on each of these topics. 

> > the county shall conduct a CBI background check [on various folks]
> 

This requirement is silly. The people who might actually engage in
tampering or fraud, are surely plugged into some political faction or
other. These people do not have arrest records. If they were to be
arrested, they know who to talk to in order to have the record
hidden. These are NOT street level drug dealers.

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx