November 30, 2006

"NIST-backed panel calls for end to paperless voting"

"The 2007 version of federal Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines should include provisions that prevent paperless electronic voting machines from getting certified, according to a subcommittee advising the Election Assistance Commission.

The Security and Transparency Subcommittee of the commission’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee made the recommendation in a report posted on the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Web site earlier this month. NIST supports the committee.

Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines, better known as touch-screen machines, record votes electronically. However, many observers consider the machines to be prone to errors and potentially open to security breaches. With no paper record for officials to check the electronic totals against, officials are unable to audit the accuracy of the machines or to conduct recounts that don't depend on the original tallies, opponents of paperless voting say.

The subcommittee recommends that all systems certified under the 2007 guidelines be “software independent.” They define the term as meaning a system that provides a safeguard so that undetected errors in the electronic total can't affect the outcome of an election. In general, that means using electronic machines with a voter-verified paper record."

The story is here.

The draft NIST white paper can be found here.

Posted by Randy Riddle at November 30, 2006 02:42 PM