BBV: 3/27 Opinion Piece by Avi Rubin (of Johns Hopkins)

[gristy]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/8289275.htm

Posted on Sat, Mar. 27, 2004
No paper? Vulnerable elections
BY AVI RUBIN

I became embroiled in the national debate about electronic voting security when I co-authored a report exposing serious security flaws in Diebold's AccuVote-TS machines.

The day before we released our report in July, Maryland officials announced that they were buying $55.6 million worth of these machines. Rather than asking me to work with them, which I offered to do several times, state officials immediately targeted me with criticism and discounted my findings. They continue to do so despite three subsequent studies, two of them paid for by the state, which confirmed our initial findings.

The main problem with electronic voting machines that do not provide voter-verifiable paper ballots is that they are entirely controlled by software.

I worked as an election judge during the March 2 primary in Baltimore County. It was the best thing I could have done to learn about election security. While some of my previous security concerns appeared less threatening given the procedures we followed, others seemed worse.

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[BeFree]

1. Wow...

Confirms what Bev Harris told us over a year ago.
Glad to see a person of position (Rubin) taking a stand.
A glimmer of hope, eh?

[Eric J in MN]

2. How do we persude the other Congresspersons to act?

Only 128 Congressperson's are cosponsoring "The Voter Confidence Act," and it still hasn't made it out of committee.

How do we get through to the other Congresspersons?