E-voting rejected in Ohio

The state is balking at using the technology, citing security concerns

By Dan Verton

July 19, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell on Friday barred officials in three counties from purchasing electronic voting machines after a second round of security testing showed that the systems still have an unacceptable level of security flaws.
The decision blocks the deployment of e-voting systems from Diebold Election Systems in Hardin, Lorain and Trumbull counties. Thirty-one counties in Ohio have now postponed using e-voting systems until after the November presidential election. Seven counties, however, have already purchased paperless e-voting systems.
"As I made clear last year, I will not place these voting devices before Ohio's voters until identified risks are corrected," Blackwell said. "Diebold Election Systems has successfully addressed many, but not all, of the problems that were identified in our first security review. The lack of comprehensive resolution prevents me from giving county boards of elections a green light for this November."
Will Doherty, executive director of VerifiedVoting.org, a grass-roots organization calling for voter-verifiable paper audit trails for all e-voting systems, applauded Blackwell's decision and said voter-verified paper ballots should be the ballots of record for all voting systems.
"Precinct-based optical scan or other new technologies will likely outstrip the current generation of e-voting machines as the best technology for secure, reliable and transparent elections," he said.
In December, Blackwell released results from two comprehensive examinations that identified 57 potential security risks within the software and hardware of the voting devices manufactured by Diebold, Election Systems & Software Inc., Hart InterCivic Inc. and Sequoia Voting Systems. As a result of that testing, Blackwell ordered the vendors to correct the problems or face a halt in deployment.
Diebold Election Systems was the only vendor to submit revised voting software and hardware for retesting.
Blackwell's decision follows the lead of California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, who on April 30 issued a directive decertifying e-voting systems in 10 counties, pending security improvements. The directive also banned the use of touch-screen systems from Diebold.
For more about this topic, see our E-Voting Special Coverage page.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

U.S. Restaurant Chain Bakes in Whitelisting
Targeted attacks, data theft and PCI DSS compliance are current challenges for most organizations today. In this Case Study, discover how Bit9 helped...

Modernizing the IT Infrastructure
(Source: Oracle) There is a lot of legacy in many government IT systems today - legacy hardware, legacy software platforms, and legacy skills...

IT Modernization in Government
As IT budgets are slashed, IT management pressures rise and legacy systems linger in government organizations, modernizing the IT infrastructure and applications has...

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

Accelerate SSL Encrypted Applications
The amount of SSL traffic is growing in the enterprise. Because it is encrypted, it cannot be properly controlled and accelerated. Blue Coat...

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Cost savings, speed to value, and innovation brought to the enterprise by Workday's software-as-a-service solutions for HR and Payroll....

ESG Lab Field Audit
Many companies have successfully implemented Riverbed WAN optimization solutions within their Cisco networks. This ESG Lab Field Audit document explores the success that...

SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics, discusses the real value of software-as-a-service and why he chose Workday for his HR solution....

Shape Your Apps Strategy to Reflect New SaaS Licensing and Pricing Trends
Why are smart companies choosing software-as-a-service? Find out in the complimentary Forrester Research report...

Why Compliance Pays
This OnDemand webcast explores the relationship that firms with best compliance records have higher revenue, greater customer retention, lower financial losses from data...

All White Papers | All Webcasts