[ale] Its over. Maybe

Jim Popovitch jimpop at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 3 21:58:53 EST 2004


On Wed, 2004-11-03 at 21:01 -0500, Geoffrey wrote:

> There are some very good and highly qualified privacy experts who have 
> stated these machines should not be used.  I'll provide one link from 
> Avi Rubin's home page.  Avi is highly regarded in the security/privacy 
> circles:
> 
> http://avirubin.com/vote/analysis/index.html

It's sort'a funny that Avi references the SAIC report, which itself
references Avi's work (although not in similar light) 

The SAIC report, referenced in URL above, emphatically states" 

   "While many of the statements made by Mr. Rubin were technically
   correct, it is clear that Mr. Rubin did not have a complete
   understanding of the State of Maryland's implementation of the
   AccuVote-TS voting system, and the election process controls or
   environment."

Further in the same report SAIC states:

   "This Risk Assessment has identified several high-risk
   vulnerabilities in the implementation of the managerial, operational,
   and technical controls for AccuVote-TS voting system. If these
   vulnerabilities are exploited, significant impact could occur on the
   accuracy, integrity, and availability of election results."

In short, the Executive Summary of the SAIC report supports my argument
that it's NOT the black-box that you need to worry about, but rather the
integrity of the electoral staff.

Reading the SAIC report, referenced in the URL you provided, makes me
feel even better about the Diebold product.

Thanks!

-Jim P.






More information about the Ale mailing list