The U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has Awarded a $10 Million Contract to build a Secure Voting System.
DARPA has handed the Project to Tech Firm Galois.
DARPA promises the System will let People Check that their Own Vote was Recorded Correctly, although it hasn’t Disclosed how.
It says the System will use both Open-Source Hardware made from DARPA’s own Secure Designs, and fully Open Source Software, unlike the Proprietary Systems used for most Voting Machines.
This means External Researchers and Developers will be able to Examine its Source Code and Check for Bugs or Vulnerabilities.
It will be Impressive if the Project Succeeds.
Electronic Voting has been Criticized as one of U.S. Elections’ Weakest Links, with Researchers managing to Hack into many Systems.
In a Live Demonstration at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Conference September 13th, 2018, J. Alex Halderman, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, showed just how easy it would be to Meddle with Vote Tallies to Directly Change Election Outcomes.
Halderman brought an AccuVote TSX machine to the Stage in a Live Demonstration of the Dangers.
He had Three Volunteers use the Machine to Vote in a Mock Election between George Washington and Benedict Arnold.
Cameras pointing at the Screen and Projected above the Stage showed the Three Voters casting their Ballots for Washington. Yet when Halderman Printed the Returns from the Machine and tally them, the Reported Result was a Two-to-One Victory for Arnold.
How did it happen? Through Tampering with the Ballot Programming. For every Election, Officials have to Program the Candidates into the Machine using a Physical Memory Card. Halderman Infected this Card with Malicious Vote-Stealing Software before any Voters got anywhere near the Polling Booths.
“This machine you saw here is used in 18 states, and some of the states, including Georgia, use an even older version of the software than I showed here today,” he said.
Georgia has long been at the Center of the Debate over Insecure Voting Technology. Election Integrity Groups Unsuccessfully Sued to Ban the State’s Paperless Voting Machines before then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s 2018 Gubernatorial Victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams. A Judge agreed that the Paperless Machines posed an Unacceptable Risk but Ruled that it would have been too Disruptive to Change systems Months Ahead of the Election.
In January, a Commission created by Kemp recommended Replacing those Paperless Machines with Barcode Devices. Election Security Experts had urged the Committee to Instead Recommend a Paper-Based system. Georgia decided to Buy this system anyway.
States, Cities, and Counties switching to New Technology will probably have to Live with their Choices for years to come, given the Expense and Difficulty of Changing systems.
The Dispute over the Ballot-Marking Devices centers on the fact that they use Barcodes, which can be Read by Scanners but Not by Humans. Though the Paper Records also Display a Voter’s Choices in Plain Text, which the Voter can Double-Check, the Barcode is the part that gets Tallied without comparing what is on the Paper. The Danger is Hackers who Infiltrate a Ballot-Marking Device could Modify the Barcode so its Vote Data Differs from what’s on the Printed Text. If this happened, Voters and Election Workers would have no way of Spotting it. “We simply don't know whether BMDs can generate a paper trail that’s sufficiently hard for attackers to manipulate,” Halderman said.
To handle this Problem, there has to be a Sample Manual Audit comparing the Paper Trail against the Barcode Tally.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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