November 7, 2006:Ready or Not

The National Academies Press provides free access to a Letter Report on Electronic Voting, by the National Research Council Committee on a Framework For Understanding Electronic Voting. This is an alarming (though not alarmist) assessment of nationwide readiness for the widespread use of electronic voting in the US elections this November. It is well worth reading by anyone concerned with the integrity of American elections.

Excerpts:

The committee believes that some jurisdictions--and possibly many--may not be well prepared for the deployment and use of electronic voting equipment and related technology...

Security issues remain prominent in the public debate about voting technologies...

Election officials are increasingly realizing the fundamental contradictions between relying on current procedures and requirements for certifying voting system software, on the one hand, and holding elections on fixed, immovable dates, on the other... In the event that problems are found after certification, election officials must then choose between using certified systems with known problems or using uncertified systems in which those problems may have been fixed...

It is not clear that electronic voting machines can be adequately tested before being deployed...

Recommendations

As the November 2006 elections approach, the committee's first and most urgent recommendation is that election jurisdictions should--indeed must--ensure the availability of backup mechanisms and procedures for use in the event of any failure of e-voting equipment or related technology. This recommendations is based on the fact that any "flash" cutover to new technology (such as we are seeing today with many e-voting systems) almost guarantees surprises and unintended consequences (e.g., system crashes, unacceptably slow performance)... [emphasis in original]

Most organizations have learned the hard way that it is necessary to develop, test, evaluate, and iterate with small-scale prototypes before committing themselves to an organization-wide program of technology upgrade. They have also learned that they should plan on the simultaneous availability of both old and new systems for some period of time, so that failures in the new system do not leave them unable to perform their mission...

To prepare for the possibility of widespread failures (e.g., voting systems made inoperable on a large scale, whether by technology or acts of nature), election officials need to engage in a contingency planning process focused on such a possibility...

The November 2006 elections pose challenges like no other previous one regarding reliability, usability, security, training, education, and testing...

However, these observations are not meant to suggest that there will be widespread failures of electronic voting systems, that election results will be clouded by excessive voter confusion about using new electronic voting systems, or that electronic election fraud will necessarily occur in November. Nevertheless, the circumstances of the November election raise the stakes for conducting elections that are regarded as fair and that can withstand close scrutiny even in the face of unproven technology and new election procedures. The challenges facing election officials and the nation in the upcoming election are formidable indeed, and only time will tell if election officials across the land will be able to succeed in the face of these challenges.