Voter Beware—E is for Electronic, Elections and Error
By Chicago-Kent ACS Member Jamie Fillmore — October 24, 2006

Two weeks before the 2006 midterm elections, the Chicago-Kent Chapter of the American Constitution Society (ACS) brought back 2005 Chicago-Kent alum David Robin to discuss The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World. Flush with data from the first systematic study of security vulnerabilities in our three most common electronic voting systems in the United States, Robin gave a sobering account of the state of the art in American electronic voting.   In 2005, The Brennan Center for Justice convened the Task Force on Voting System Security comprised of internationally renowned government, academic and private-sector scientists; voting machine experts and security professionals to study the relative security and accuracy of electronic voting, as well as the factors that affect it. Depending on your predilection for cynicism versus realism versus optimism, the study's three main points suggest cause for concern, but not without hope for improvement: 1) All three voting systems have significant security and reliability vulnerabilities, which pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state and local elections; 2) The most troubling vulnerabilities of each system can be substantially remedied if proper countermeasures are implemented at the state and local level; 3) Few jurisdictions have implemented any of the key countermeasures that could make the least difficult attacks against voting systems much more difficult to execute successfully.

The frequency of debilitating computer viruses and computer-aided identity theft coupled with our war-on-terror inspired security consciousness advocates caution, care and hesitation over bold—but blind—adoption. Nevertheless, the Brennan Center Task Force estimates that nearly 80% of all votes will be cast on electronic voting machines in 2006.Noting that the types of vulnerabilities discussed in the study need not be set in motion by a conspiratorial plot (perhaps, befitting a Hollywood movie), David Robin said "almost everything that a malicious attacker could attempt could also happen by accident." Citing the study, Robin also noted that attacks on voting systems have a long history, and that several highly sensitive electronic systems have already been subject to sophisticated (and in some cases, successful) attacks, including government systems, financial systems, and gambling machines.

Robin's summary of the Center's study included specific, detailed information as to the types of equipment in current or near-future use and the range of vulnerabilities peculiar to each type. Yet, I  found it difficult to get past the disregard for simple, common sense measures—things most of us would be uncomfortable doing with our own laptops, much less the equipment for determining our leaders. For example, only two states ban all wireless components on electronic voting machines. One need only recall the 17-year old who hacked Paris Hilton's cell phone or the 40 million MasterCard records breached in 2005 for a clear reminder of the relative ease with which a determined individual can overcome computer security measures.

Against a backdrop of the Brennan Center report on the current state of electronic voting machines, Robin screened a DVD Stealing America: Vote By Vote. Despite technical difficulties, the message of this film came through—lack of transparency and accountability in our election process weakens the integrity of our democracy. Stealing America focused primarily on the 2004 presidential election.

The film raised several important concerns, including the statistically significant discrepancies between exit polls and final official vote tallies, as well as the technical glitches such as votes switching from one candidate to another on touch screen voting machines in at least thirteen states. One particularly striking scene presents a continuous shot of one of the longer lines of people waiting to vote in Ohio, where the sheer determination of those in line almost offsets the reprehensible length of the line itself.

Given that a spate of ethically questionable tactics and activities currently shadows Republicans more than Democrats, there is an unavoidable tendency to exclaim "liberal conspiracy!" or "gotcha!" respectively. However, the Brennan Center study and "Stealing America" both make it clear that much larger matters are at stake. More specifically, as the country remains sharply divided on crucial issues, as the distinguishing features of major party candidates continue to blur, and as the roughly 54% of eligible voters fends off cynicism about their votes counting, it becomes even more critical—for the elected and the electorate alike—to ensure that every vote counts.

For more information about the Brennan Center or the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, visit www.brennancenter.org or www.ballot-integrity.org, respectively. "Stealing America: Vote By Vote" is available at stealingamerica.org or email Chicago-Kent ACS to arrange a viewing of the copy on file