Computers & Democracy

• Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, and Edward W. Felten, Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine - Read executive summary and watch demonstration video
• Paula Hawthorn, Barbara Simons, Chris Clifton, David Wagner, Steven M. Bellovin, Rebecca N. Wright, Arnon Rosenthal, Ralph Spencer Poore, Lillie Coney, Robert Gellman, Harry Hochheiser, Statewide Databases of Registered Voters: Study Of Accuracy, Privacy, Usability, Security, and Reliability Issues (Executive Summary), February 16, 2006. Study commissioned by the U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery.
• Adam Cohen, The Good News (Really) About Voting Machines, The New York Times, January 10th, 2007

Class Discussion

1. What are the problems of standard paper voting systems?
2. How can Direct-Recording Electronic voting machines (DRE) potentially solve some problems? What problems might they introduce?
3. Imagine that you are a poll observer, what should you look for to determine whether there may be electronic voting fraud?
4. How have different municipalities, states, or countries handled voting? Consider compliance with laws and guidelines in the United States such as the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 and the U.S. Election Assistance Comission Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG).
5. What about Internet voting or voting over some public network?

Resources

• EFF Electronic Voting Machine Quick Refernce Guides (2006)
• The U.S. General Accounting Office's Report on Federal Efforts to Improve Security and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems Are Under Way, but Key Activities Need to Be Completed
• Ed felten's Blog on Voting
• Maryland State Board of Elections Maryland's Better Way to Vote
• Organizations
  • VotersUnite.Org
  • VerifiedVoting.org
• There'a always Wikipedia