TO: CVF-NEWS FROM: Saskia Mills, CVF Executive Director DATE: October 2, 2001 RE: FEC voting systems standards; CVF Pres. in D.C.
Hi Folks,
Earlier this year, the Federal Election Commission released its draft Voluntary Standards for Computerized Voting Systems, and invited comment from the public.
The California Voter Foundation submitted its comments on the voting systems standards in September in the form of a letter to the FEC. Below is a short summary of CVF's recommendations; the entire letter can be found on CVF's web site at http://www.calvoter.org/votingtech/fecletter.html.
For links to the FEC's draft standards, as well as to comments on the standards made by David Jefferson, Rebecca Mercuri, Peter Neumann and others, visit the new Voting Systems Standards section of our voting technology links page at http://www.calvoter.org/votingtechnology.html.
In other news, CVF President Kim Alexander is in Washington D.C. this week attending a workshop sponsored by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies. The focus of the workshop is "Authentication Technologies and Their Privacy Implications", and Kim will be speaking about authentication and privacy as they relate to the voting process. Details are online at the CSTB web site at http://www.cstb.org/web/project_authentication.
-- Saskia Mills, Executive Director
California Voter Foundation
saskia@calvoter.org, (530) 750-7650
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II. Summary of the California Voter Foundation's Recommendations to the FEC
1. The Commission should extend the deadline for this comment period.
2. The proposed standards do not reflect the current state of knowledge and therefore the Commission should commence a new standards development process immediately.
3. The Commission should remove all standards specifically for remote Internet Voting systems.
4. The Commission should ensure that those responsible for choosing voting systems are aware that remote Internet voting is not an alternative.
5. The Commission should clarify, in each instance, that the general Internet Voting standards are for Poll Site Internet voting exclusively.
6. The Standards should reflect the current discussion about the source code of voting technology.
7. The standards should require routine re-certification of voting systems that feature a software component.
8. The standards should require systems to allow voters to register a decision not to vote in a given contest.
9. Design and usability standards must be included in the standards.
10. Voter privacy must be considered in standards for voter registration databases.
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This page was first published on October 2, 2001 | Last updated on October 2, 2001
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