Cleveland State University research helps find problems in election machines
Posted by </mc/[email protected]>Laura Johnston/Plain Dealer Reporter March 24, 2009 08:28AM http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1237883598162930.xml&coll=2 Poll workers in Medina County were pleased with their new voting machines in 2005, but new research finds flaws in the design. Audit logs were supposed to be the fail-safe of elections, an indestructible record of votes to assure the accuracy of electronic voting machines. But thanks in part to research at Cleveland State University , California has found problems with the audit logs of <http://www.premierelections.com/>Premier Elections Solutions, the maker of optical-scan and touch-screen systems used in 33 states and half of Ohio 's 88 counties, including Lorain , Medina and Portage . The Premier software does not keep track of ballot deletions, according to a recent report by the California secretary of state. The software also records the wrong entry date and time for some ballots and allows audit logs to be deleted. Such flaws mean that insiders could tamper with election results, then erase their electronic trail. Experts say the problem could violate voting system standards. "You can very easily erase entries," said Candice Hoke, director of CSU's Center for Election Integrity. "These are flaws in the design, and they're part of the concerns motivating the California secretary of state right now." Hoke collaborated with researchers from Princeton, Stanford and the University of California on a 2007 review of California 's voting machines. The report noted that audit logs could be overwritten or erased. After a hearing last week with Green-based Premier, formerly known as Diebold , California is considering its options. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner would not comment on the problem, citing a pending lawsuit against Premier. Cuyahoga County is also involved in the suit, in which Brunner argues Premier should pay for voting machine problems in Cuyahoga and 10 other counties. Cuyahoga dropped Premier for Election Systems & Software after Premier's vote-counting software crashed in the November 2007 election. Premier officials did not return calls for comment. But 44 other Ohio counties use a Premier system that scans and counts paper ballots. Neither Medina nor Portage has seen problems with the system, elections officials said. Even news of audit log problem didn't faze them. "That's where checks and balances come in," said Susan Strasser, deputy director of the Medina County Board of Elections."There's nothing in life that's perfect. You just do everything you can as far as security is concerned to make sure these things don't happen." Glenda Enders, director of the Portage Board of Elections, agreed. As in Medina , Portage voting machines are kept in locked rooms, and representatives from both political parties must be present to access the equipment. "That's why in Ohio law you have Ds and Rs," Enders said. "You have half and half in each office so you have a double check on each other." "The officials are right about no perfect system" Hoke said. She would like to study every type of system as thoroughly as she studied Cuyahoga's Diebold system in 2006. "We know that these software programs were all designed at roughly the same time. ... We should expect that there will be security deficiencies," she said. "We need to find out what kind of problems exist so we can cure them." As for the omissions on Premiers audit logs, officials could compile parallel logs using Microsoft Windows, to compare to the Premier logs, Hoke said. A panel of experts could review both after every election. "Then we tell the world," she said. "Anyone who may be thinking of tampering, we've got systems in place. They will likely be discovered." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [email protected] OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
