Researcher Critical of Voting System Cuts Ties to Election Software Firm

[Judi Lynn]

Researcher Critical of Voting System Cuts Ties to Election Software Firm
The Associated Press
Published: Aug 20, 2003


BALTIMORE (AP) - A Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who co-wrote an influential report alleging flaws in touch-screen voting software used by a leading manufacturer has resigned from the technical advisory board of a provider of competing software.
The researcher, Avi Rubin, resigned this week because "he didn't want any perception of conflict of interest," Jim Adler, chief executive of VoteHere Inc., said Tuesday.

Rubin, technical director of Johns Hopkins' Information Security Institute, said he was returning stock options, resigning from the VoteHere board of advisors, and asking Hopkins to review his outside consulting work.

"I believe it was careless of me to engage in a study of a software system of a company in the same space as another company in which I had a financial interest," Rubin said in a statement. "Had it occurred to me at the time, I would have disassociated myself from them. I am now doing just that."

Rubin said he had never exercised the options and had not profited in any way from his affiliation with VoteHere. In fact, he said he has had no contact with VoteHere since he signed on to the board two years ago. He said he didn't talk to VoteHere about the report or review its products or software. (snip/...)

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA1I3DKLJD.html

(?)

[zekeson]

1. It sounds like he is a good guy

But, Cheee-rist, he sounds like he took lessons from * on being a board member:

In fact, he said he has had no contact with VoteHere since he signed on to the board two years ago. He said he didn't talk to VoteHere about the report or review its products or software.

Why the heck was he on their board, then?

[gbwarming]

2. Why on the board? So Votehere could show that they cared about security.

Sounds good on paper.

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:4gU1piPTSx4J:www.votehere.net/ada_compliant/leadership/avirubin.html+votehere+rubin&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Advisory Board
Avi Rubin
Avi Rubin is a Principal Researcher at AT&T Labs and an adjunct professor of Computer Science at New York University and is a widely recognized expert in the field of computer security. In addition to numerous technical publications, he has published three books,Web Security Sourcebook (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), Peer-to-Peer (O'Reilly, 2001), and White-Hat Security Arsenal (Addison Wesley, 2001). Rubin serves on the board of directors of the USENIX organization and as Associate Editor of the Electronic Commerce Research Journal. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science, and an M.S.E and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, all from the University of Michigan.

[Chico Man]

3. Why is election software not open source???

wouldn't the best way for these companies to dispel criticism be to release all of their source code?

The public should be able to view the code at will. Only then would I feel comfortable using a computer to cast a ballot.

[Bushfire]

4. Couldn't they trademark their code?

I understand code is long, and complex but couldn't they trademark parts of their code that make it unique to any other program out there? There must be a million ways to count votes, all which if open source could be verified by computer scientists. If Faux News can trademark "Fair & Balanced", couldn't voting code be trademarked allowing it to be open source?