Election Reform & Related News, Friday 4/13/07 MIT Prof. Rivest on Voting Systems

Today's Featured Article

Computerworld

Don't trust online voting, speaker says
MIT prof keynoting Usenix is seriously underwhelmed

Tim Greene



snip

Even when the Internet is avoided, secure electronic voting is fraught with other problems, including the security of voting machines and their millions of lines of private code. Source code for voting machines, as well as their underlying operating systems, should be available for security checks by testing labs, Rivest says.

The machines may be attached to networks that represent another point of attack, Rivest says. Voting machines at precinct polling places may be networked to local databases of voters, and those may in turn be connected to municipal databases of voters, he says, opening the machines to tampering over the network or denial-of-service attacks.

Electronic voting that leaves a paper trail also is hard because voters don't want a receipt that violates the secrecy of their vote by showing in plain text how they voted. Rivest described a way to encrypt the results multiple times before they are counted, verifying at each step that votes are recorded accurately but without providing a direct link between voters and an unencrypted copy of how they voted.

Even designing verifiable paper-ballot systems is difficult, Rivest says. A big challenge to designing secure, verifiable voting systems is proving that votes are recorded as cast and that those votes are then tallied accurately.

much more:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=privacy&articleId=9016460&taxonomyId=84

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California Progress Report

New Study Shows Problems with Runoff Elections in L.A.--Instant Runoff Voting Proposed as Solution

April 13, 2007.
Lessons to be Learned for Other Elections in California

By Lynne Serpe
Deputy Director of Political Reform Program
The New America Foundation

Los Angeles taxpayers are about to spend an estimated five million dollars for a May 15 runoff election in which voter turnout is predicted to be in the single digits. As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposes decreasing the city of Los Angeles’ budget deficit, a new study suggests another way to save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars: eliminate the runoff election and instead use instant runoff voting to elect majority winners in a single election.

New America’s study analyzes the impact of runoff elections in Los Angeles in terms of the cost to taxpayers, voter turnout, campaign finance expenditures, and environmental impacts. The full report may be found on the web.

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/04/new_study_shows_2.html

PR Newswire: SOURCE DC Vote

Mayor, City Leaders and Members of Congress Will Join Citizens for March

WASHINGTON, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Marching down Pennsylvania Avenue,
citizens and civil rights leaders who want to end taxation without
representation in the nation's capital will turn out Monday to raise
awareness about DC's injustice. The marchers will arrive at the Capitol at
4:00 PM to rally for voting rights. The nearly 600,000 citizens of
Washington, DC pay full federal taxes but are denied a vote in the United
States Congress.
Members of Congress, including Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Tom Davis
(R- VA), Chris Shays (R-CT), and civil rights icon John Lewis (D-GA) will
join Mayor Adrian Fenty and Council Chairman Vincent Gray for the rally at
the Capitol. Secretary Jack Kemp will also speak.
Thousands have pledged to march at VotingRightsMarch.org and many more
are expected to turn out. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights,
unions, teachers, students, People For the American Way, Common Cause, and
MoveOn.org are just some of the dozens of groups who have been working to
recruit marchers.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-13-2007/0004565016&EDATE

thenorthwestern.com

Posted April 13, 2007


This is a matter of transparency more than message.

If a state politician has the gall to appear in or clearly endorse a TV ad going after his or her challenger, then that person suffers the criticisms and consequences when the strategy sours voters. With campaign finance reporting requirements in Wisconsin, voters curious about such ads have the opportunity to connect dots, to see how campaign cash fueled them.

But if a third-party group sporting a nebulous name and gloomy soundtrack swoops into the campaign crossfire, attacking a candidate with a barrage of TV ads, that group doesn't have to report where their ammunition is coming from.

No connecting of dots.

Less voter awareness.

That's wrong.

Last fall's 54th State Assembly race in Oshkosh was plenty proof that Wisconsin's campaign finance laws need improvement. The victor, state Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, is among a group of rookie state legislators backing a bill to require third-party groups to register with the State Elections Board and report who is paying for their ads if they run within 60 days of a primary or general election.

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070413/OSH06/704130471/1190/OSHopinion

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Dan Wiessner
Albany bureau


(April 13, 2007) — ALBANY — State lawmakers should use the remaining half of this year's legislative session to overhaul the way elections are financed and political boundaries are drawn, watchdog groups said Thursday.

The groups want the state to enact sweeping campaign-finance reforms, including lowering contribution limits and banning "soft money," and establish an independent commission to redraw the boundaries of legislative districts. Their call came at the halfway point of the 2007 session, which ends June 21.

"There certainly has been a good deal of productivity and energy" since the session began in January, "but major reform has not happened," said Russ Haven of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The Legislature has for decades drawn up "designer districts" meant to keep incumbents in office and ensure a political party's majority, said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters. Adhering to the "one person, one vote" ideal would make all districts roughly the same size. But, Bartoletti said, only 29 of the state's 212 districts are fairly drawn.

Senate and Assembly majorities have long made their own districts as small as possible while drawing up huge districts for the members whose party is in the minority, which decreases the level of representation, she said.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070413/NEWS01/704130379/1002/NEWS

Friday, 13 April 2007, 10:54 am
Opinion: Bradblog.Com
U.S. Election Assistance Commission Altered Final Report On 'Voter Fraud' For Political Purposes

- NY Times Finds Original Bi-Partisan Draft Report, Buried by the EAC, Concluded Fears of 'Voter Fraud' Were Overblown
- Altered, Politicized Report Follows Familiar White House Pattern, Brings Additional New Concerns About Continuing Status of EAC...
By Arlen Parsa and Brad Friedman
BLOGGED BY Arlen Parsa ON 4/11/2007 1:12PM


The New York Times reports today that a governmental report on the so-called dangers of "voter fraud" was manipulated to reflect the Bush Administration's claims rather than their own panel's findings.

The Times obtained two copies of the report on voter fraud, the first of which concluded that fears of voter fraud were overblown and exaggerated. The second --- and official version of the report --- however steps back and promotes ambiguity about the danger (or lack of danger) that voter fraud poses to American democracy.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00206.htm

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING
The Daily Reveille
Louisiana State University

by Jonathan Lo
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Opinion
Originally published: 4/12/07 at 11:32 PM MST Last update: 4/12/07 at 11:31 PM MST

Louisiana Democrats are in deep trouble.

Already reeling from the population loss in strongly Democratic New Orleans, prospects now go from bad to worse in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

When former Sen. John Breaux announced his interest in running for governor of Louisiana, things initially looked bleak for Louisiana Republicans. Prior to the announcement, the race appeared to be a runoff between current Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Rep. Bobby Jindal. All indicators showed that Jindal would easily win considering the vast differences between their job approval ratings. Needless to say, Louisiana Republicans were relatively at ease with the upcoming election for governor.

All that changed when Blanco decided not to run for office. When Breaux announced interest in running, an easy win for Republicans seemed to flip into an intense fight. Almost immediately after Breaux's announcement, Republicans began to run commercials and launch Web sites openly questioning the status of his citizenship.

http://media.www.lsureveille.com/media/storage/paper868/news/2007/04/13/Opinion/La.Democrats.Face.Problems.In.07.Race-2840222.shtml

The Norman Transcript

Published: April 13, 2007 12:00 am

The Norman Transcript

Transcript Staff

Today is the last day to apply for voter registration in order to be eligible to vote in the May 8 Norman city election and Mid-Del school election, Cleveland County Election Board Secretary Paula G. Roberts said.

Curbside recycling will be on the ballot in Norman.

Roberts said persons who are United States citizens, residents of Oklahoma and at least 18 years old may apply to become registered voters.

Persons who have never been registered to vote before or who are not currently registered in the county of their residence and persons who are registered but who need to change their registration information may apply to register or to change name or address or political affiliation by filling out and mailing an Oklahoma voter registration application form in time for it to be postmarked no later than midnight tonight.

http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_103002348

Alternet

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted April 13, 2007.

A law regulating voting machines making its way through Congress lacks an explicit provision allowing voters to sue -- a right that was a cornerstone of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.

Should citizens explicitly be allowed to sue if they can prove their votes have been stolen or miscounted by electronic voting machines?

As election integrity activists focus their attention on pressuring the House Committee on Administration to ban electronic voting machines when Congress reconvenes next week, the question of whether voters can individually sue -- known as a private cause of action -- has received scant public attention. But that legal right, which was a cornerstone of the federal Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, is not in the panel's bill, H.R. 811. Instead, the bill says citizens can sue under other preexisting laws.

"There is no new private cause of action," said John Bonifaz, a noted voting rights attorney who is now a senior legal fellow with Demos, a New York City-based progressive think tank that focuses on numerous pro-democracy issues, speaking of the bill proposed by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/50492/

4/13/07, 1:09 pm EST

The only substantive note of interest to emerge from the esoteric U.S. Attorney scandal is the Karl Rove-driven effort to force USAs to prosecute “voter fraud”.

While GOP voter suppression — which recently led to criminal convictions in New Hampshire — has been amply documented, Republicans have long countered that, well hey, liberals are drumming up criminal conspiracies to create voter fraud that skews elections in their favor.
Indeed, preventing fraud has been used to justify the recent wave of restrictive voter-ID requirements that — despite their pre-clearance by the Justice Department — have been found by judges around the country to pose an unconstitutional barrier to the franchise.

If there’s a silver lining to Rove’s tenure it may be that we can finally put this he-said/she-said story to rest. After five years of aggressively targeting voter fraud under guidelines that make inadvertent paperwork errors grounds for prosecution, the Rove/Gonzalez/Aschroft Justice Department has turned up nothing to support allegations of wide-spread fraud.

http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs

TPM

By Paul Kiel - April 13, 2007, 12:53 PM

Here's another new document from the ones released today. And it's a good one.

They are two pages of handwritten notes, apparently taken by Monica Goodling -- the now former Justice Department official who's pled the Fifth. The notes appear to have emerged from a brainstorming session on justifications for firing the U.S. attorneys in early February of this year.

At the top of the first page, for instance, is a one word question: "Reasons?"

The session resulted in a chart showing the different supposed deficiencies with each U.S. attorney. In the documents produced, the previous and following documents are emails from Monica Goodling forwarding versions of the charts to her DoJ colleagues. "Here is the chart the mentioned wanting to brief and leave behind. Kyle has reviewed it," she writes in one February 12, 2007 email. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty was preparing to meet privately with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003009.php

(Published Friday, April 13, 2007 11:18:47 AM CST)

By Frederic J. Frommer
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - House Democrats asked the Republican National Committee Thursday to hand over e-mails about U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic of Milwaukee prior to his decision to indict former Wisconsin state worker Georgia Thompson.

In a letter to RNC Chairman Robert M. Duncan, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan said that the committee has been "advised that there may be RNC e-mail traffic" about concerns that the Republican Party had about Biskupic.

http://www.gazetteextra.com/travelcontract041307.asp

Gazette Extra

(Published Friday, April 13, 2007 11:20:48 AM CST)

By Scott Bauer
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. - Acting on a new state law, the Wisconsin Elections Board has forwarded 82 cases in which convicted felons may have voted in the November election to district attorneys for further investigation.

The board said Thursday that it identified the cases of potential voter fraud and asked the district attorneys to take a closer look.

As required under the law, Elections Board staff matched the names of people on supervision as part of a felony sentence with those who were recorded by the statewide voter list as having cast a ballot in the Nov. 7 election.

http://www.gazetteextra.com/eln_fraud041307.asp

Las Cruces Sun-News

By Chris Cillizza / The Washington Post
Article Launched: 04/13/2007 10:14:01 AM MDT

WASHINGTON — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched its second radio ad of the 2008 election season against Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., in an attempt to link her to the scandal surrounding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

The ads began airing Friday morning across Wilson's Albuquerque area 1st Congressional District and are meant to coincide with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

"No one is getting the truth about Heather Wilson's involvement in the scandal," says the ad's narrator. He adds that Wilson has said a "constituent complaint" led her to contact then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias about a scandal involving state Democrats. Iglesias was later fired.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/latest/ci_5659992

John Nichols

BLOG | Posted 04/13/2007 @ 11:52am

The burgeoning congressional focus on the supposedly "missing" emails of White House political czar Karl Rove and almost two dozen other presidential aides who were doing political work on the taxpayers' dime is not limited to questions about the eight U.S. Attorneys who were fired after at least some of them reportedly failed to politicize their prosecutions.

A new letter issued by key members of the House Judiciary Committee specifically expresses concerns that push the inquiry beyond the eight to look at the potential that some of the 85 U.S. Attorneys who were not fired may have been kept on because they used their powers in a manner that pleased Rove and his minions.

While working in the White House, Rove and at least 21 other aides used computer accounts set up by the Republican National Committee to allow them to do political work from their federal offices.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=185976

Michael Roston
Published: Friday April 13, 2007

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced yesterday that it will likely authorize subpoenas for Karl Rove's top deputy in the White House. The message came as the committee authorized subpoenas for other Justice Department and White House officials, and suggests that interest has grown among investigators in Sara M. Taylor's role in the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Bush administration.

"The committee is expected to vote on a similar authorization next week for Sara M. Taylor, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs," the Judiciary Committee said in a press release yesterday announcing the other subpoena authorizations.

The committee had voted to give Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) the authority to compel testimony from J. Scott Jennings, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs, and William E. Moschella, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, and also to require the Justice Department and White House to produce more documents.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Roves_no._2_to_face_subpoena_0413.html

Now published everywhere...

as of yesterday on ERD 4/12/07

and

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=274535&mesg_id=274535

By John Washburn, VoteTrustUSA Voting Technology Task Force
April 13, 2007
On Tuesday, March 13, 2006 I was finally able to confirm that WinEDS is routinely shipped with source code and a compiler and the presence of the compiler is required by Sequoia. The source code is the SQL programming in the Transact-SQL language and the compiler of this source code is Enterprise Manager.

During the audit of the Pinellas County, Florida primary election last year, it was discovered the county was using to Enterprise manger to directly manipulate the Microsoft SQL database under the WinEDS application. The question which I could not confirm until yesterday was whether Sequoia REQUIRES the purchase and installation of the SQL compiler, Enterprise Manager, or not. The purchase orders from Waukesha County, Wisconsin confirm Sequoia requires the complete set of Microsoft SQL database administration tools (Eneterprise manager, Query analyser, etc.) be installed as a requirement of WinEDS. In Waukesha county, the WinEDS application runs on the same physical machine as these database adminstratin tools.

This is a violation of 6.4.1(e) or the 2002 Voting System Standards (VSS).

Here is a letter I sent to the county clerk and the staff of the Wisconsin State Elections Board:

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2378&Itemid=51