Early Voting: Reliability and Reluctance

The 2009 U.S. Presidential election is now underway, with early voting having started in many states. And pretty much right off the bat, we’re seeing problems with reliability and reluctance. The story in New Jersey is a familiar one writ large, but the contrast with Texas and Florida shows that often the same concerns-- reliability and trust -- lead to similar reluctance about both using e-voting technology, and about avoiding it. The kicker is the reluctance to avoid it, in Florida – read on.

Anti-virus and the anti-voting machine

There’s some intriguing and ironic details near the bottom of the on-going legal saga in Ohio.

Real Viruses, Real Voting Systems, Real Concern

The notable election systems snafu news items of the week is a virus infection of Windows-based election systems sold by Premier Systems (Diebold) and used in Florida's Pinellas county.

As a cause for alarm, the incident is pretty low, in that the infection was by ordinary Windows OS viruses, which can cripple a Windows system in a generic way. That's not the much-speculated "targeted malware" that acts to change election data in the cases where the virus gets a foothold on an actual voting system machine.

Is Security the Problem for E-Voting?

One of the most vexing frequent issues in e-voting debates is the idea of security vulnerabilities. I don't think that security is *the* problem with actual e-voting systems, but I do think that in-security concerns are a significant problem with the way many people think about how we do e-voting.

California de-re-de-certification for voting machine use

There's a pretty regular stream of news about activities in the office of California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, de-certifying or re-certifying voting systems following the results of the state's top-to-bottom review. Rather than making an up to the minute comment, I thought it would be useful to re-visit what I think is one of the more notable past scenes in the on-going drama.

Motivation Behind Adoption

An interesting article appeared Monday in the TechDirt community, keyed by Timothy Lee, discussing a point I've tried to make before and undoubtedly will try to make in the future. This point, nicely discussed by Tim, is about the distinction between e-voting and e-commerce.

Another Voter ID Spud from Florida

Confusion. Why does it seem to always cloud polling places? Kenneth Hoffman, an educated, informed Florida businessman and registered voter relays a story to me through an e-Mail list he and I participate on, that I want to pass along here with his unbridled permission.

Security beyond the Vote

While we’re trained on how to secure the vote, its worth remembering that security of all aspects of a digital democracy is imperative. Here is a briefing from eWeek (a popular corporate IT trade pub) on the likely top security threats for 2008.

Quoting their lead-in: