[IP] more on a disturbing times editorial
Begin forwarded message:
From: Daniel Golding <dgolding@xxxxxxx>
Date: August 31, 2004 3:34:36 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] : a disturbing times editorial
For IP:
The problem that they are trying to solve is that military voters are
largely disenfranchised. Obtaining a paper absentee ballot in the
military
is more difficult than most think.
First, you submit a standardized request for a ballot, which is
forwarded to
your home state. Then, the home state will occasionally mail you an
absentee
ballot. Or, more usually, they won't. Too much trouble, I suppose. Even
if
they do send it to you, it may not catch up to you if you are away from
normal mail service. These are solved by the Pentagon's new system.
While the problems with electronic voting are significant, reasonable
digital signatures can not be manipulated the way that the writer
describes
- they contain a checksum of the contents of the document (in this
case, the
ballot). Moving the signature would invalidate the entire ballot, as the
checksums would not compare.
If all soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are issued private
encryption
keys, with the pentagon holding the corresponding public keys, this is a
fairly secure method of voting and would prove voter identity far better
than those methods used at the local precinct or ward polling place.
As far as the concern about superiors influencing voting - this is also
the
case for absentee paper ballots. Close quarters are a fact of life for
certain components of the military. It is a grave offense for superiors
to
influence a subordinates vote - I have been subjected to considerably
more
political pressure at various civilian jobs than ever in the military.
If people are as concerned about "our troops" as they claim, we need to
provide concrete solutions to secure their most vital civil right - the
ability to participate in our electoral system.
One valid criticism in this article is the lack of contractor oversight.
This is simple to solve - simply station a military judge or a
representative from the Federal Elections Commission on the premises
while
vote counting occurs in order to certify the vote.
- Daniel Golding
On 8/31/04 2:07 PM, "Dave Farber" <dave@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
___
Dave Farber +1 412 726 9889
...... Forwarded Message .......
From: Martha Baer <m.baer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 10:58:39 -0700
Subj: a disturbing times editorial
The Pentagon's Troubling Role
Published: August 31, 2004
Barely two months before the presidential vote, Missouri's secretary of
state has suddenly announced that he will allow military voters from
his
state - one of the most pivotal in the election - to e-mail ballots
from
combat zones to the Defense Department. E-mail is far too insecure to
be
used for voting. Missouri and North Dakota, which announced a similar
rule
yesterday, should rescind these orders right away. Missouri's action
also
sheds light on the Defense Department's role in administering federal
elections, a troubling situation that needs far more scrutiny.
The Missouri secretary of state, Matt Blunt, decided last week that
military voters in combat zones will be able to e-mail their ballots
to the
Pentagon, which will then send them to local Missouri elections
offices to
be counted. This system, which has not been used before, is rife with
security problems, including the possibility of hacking the e-mailed
ballots, which will not be encrypted. Earlier this year the Defense
Department scrapped a pilot program to allow the military to vote over
the
Internet, after concluding that it could not "assure the legitimacy of
votes" cast online.
There is more cause for concern after the ballots arrive at the
Pentagon.
E-mail voters will be required to sign a release acknowledging that
their
votes may not be kept secret. When the people handling ballots know who
they are cast for, it is not hard to imagine that ballots for
disfavored
candidates could accidentally be "lost." And because the e-mailed
ballots
arrive as computer documents, it is possible to cut off the voter's
digitized signature, attach it to a ballot supporting another
candidate,
and send that ballot on to the state to be counted.
It is unclear how good the protections are to guard against tampering.
The
e-mailed ballots will be handled by a contractor, Omega Technologies,
hired
for this purpose, at the company's offices and without the election
observers who are present at normal polling places.
E-mail voting by military personnel also opens the door to coercion.
Many
soldiers may have to vote on computers in places where their commanding
officers may be present. They may also be reluctant to vote their
conscience if they know that the Defense Department could be reading
their
ballots.
The Missouri and North Dakota announcements call attention to the
larger
issue of why the Pentagon is directly handling so many presidential
ballots. The Federal Voting Assistance Program, a unit of the Defense
Department, is charged with helping not only military voters, but all
eligible voters overseas, a total of about six million people. But it
is a
fundamental aspect of the American election system that handling and
counting of votes is supposed to occur at the local level. The Defense
Department should stop handling actual ballots, and instead help
military
and other overseas voters send them directly to local elections
officials.
In the 1960 election, there was widespread skepticism when Mayor
Richard
Daley waited until hours after the polls closed to release the Chicago
vote, and it turned out to be almost precisely what was needed to put
Illinois in the Democratic column. It invites cynicism about our
democracy
to operate a system in which employees who answer to the secretary of
defense could control the margin of victory in a close presidential
election.
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