Congress appears to be ignorant of the thousands of documented failures of electronic voting equipment in American elections during the past few years, scandals around the testing laboratory Ciber, the possibility that 68.5% of electronic equipment now in use that was certified by Ciber was never actually tested, and the unsavory character of the major vendors of electronic voting equipment in this country.
Before Congress authorizes more spending of public money on computerized voting, Congress needs to consider the basic question of whether electronic equipment is appropriate for use in the first place, and then, whether it can be made secure by the expenditure of more money and the addition of paper trails. Congress has held no hearings at which the public can speak.
Solution
There is one thing that is worse than making a mistake-that is, refusing to acknowledge it and refusing to correct it. HAVA and the use of DREs were mistakes. As described elsewhere, Congress needs to ban DREs, require the use of voter-marked paper ballots, and require citizen observation.
b. Research on verifiable, auditable, and accessible systems, and research on accessibility of paper records
The EAC shall disburse $3,000,000 to "entities" for research and development of verifiable and accessible systems. Apparently vendors are eligible for these grants.[4,5]
The EAC shall study accessibility of paper records by 1/1/10[22,23], and $1,000,000 is authorized for this. The EAC shall coordinate this study with the $3,000,000 research on verifiable, auditable and accessible systems.
Wrong!
Despite HAVA requirements for a "manual audit capacity" and accessibility, nearly five years after HAVA passed and after deadlines by which such systems are supposed to be in use, S1487 offers money for research and development of such systems. Privatization has failed to produce compliant equipment, but unauditable and inaccessible equipment has already been purchased and used.
Solution
Money needs to be authorized to develop devices for accessible use of paper ballots, and procedures for secure handling of paper ballots.
The law should specify who owns the results of this government-funded research, and who can use the results to manufacture and sell products.
c. EAC
Unlimited funds for an unlimited time are authorized for the EAC.[6]
Wrong!
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