U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Sued for Improperly Loosening Voting System Standards, after Private Meetings with Voting Machine Manufacturers.
“Key elements of the first federal technology standards for voting equipment in 15 years should be scrapped because language that would have banned modems from connecting to the internet was dropped after private meetings held with manufacturers,” according to a Federal Lawsuit, filed Tuesday.
Free Speech For Peopleand renowned Election Security Expert, Professor Philip Stark, allege the EAC Violated Federal Laws to Privately Solicit Input from Voting System Vendors for Federal Voting System Requirements.
The Case is: Philip Stark, et al. v. Election Assistance Commission, Docket Number TK in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Stark serves on the Board of Advisors for the Federal Agency. The Law Firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Serve as co-Counsel for the Plaintiffs in this Case.
The Complaint, alleges Violations under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (“HAVA”), and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (“FACA”). Plaintiffs claim that these Back-Door Meetings resulted in Secretly developed Revisions to the Standards that Benefit Manufacturers by Weakening Voting System Security to Reduce Costs. The Revisions were Released mere days before the Commission’s Vote to Approve the New Standards, without the Proper Notice and Comment Procedure required by Law.
“The laws very clearly require the federal voting system guidelines be developed in a completely transparent and public process,” said Susan Greenhalgh, Senior Advisor for Election Security for Free Speech For People. “Instead, the EAC brazenly flouted its legal obligation to adhere to a transparent process, choosing instead to invite the manufacturers into private meetings so they could alter the voting system standards to ease requirements and benefit the manufacturers, all at the expense of the most basic cyber security best practices.”
In July of 2020, after Closure of Public Notice and Comment on the Draft Standards, an EAC Official revealed that the Commission was holding Regular, Non-Public Meetings with the Voting System Manufacturers to consider Changes to the Proposed Guidelines.
Free Speech For People tried to join these Meetings to fulfill its Mission to represent the Public in the Development of the Guidelines, but was Not permitted to participate. In August of 2020, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request, Free Speech For People requested All Communications between the EAC and Vendors. The EAC Failed to Produce Any Documents for more than Nine Months.
In April of 2021, Free Speech For People Sued to obtain Responsive Records, revealing Details of the Back-Door Negotiations that Resulted in Significant Modifications to the Original Language Drafted for the VVSG 2.0.
On February 1st, 2021, Nine days before the Scheduled Vote to Approve the VVSG 2.0, the EAC posted on its Website the Proposed Final VVSG 2.0 and a Redline showing many Significant Changes developed Without any Public Scrutiny and that the Board of Advisors, the Standards Board, and the Public had never even seen.
The last-minute Revisions to the New Federal Voting System Guidelines Loosen Standards in a manner that Reduces Costs to Voting Machine Manufacturers and Weakens Standards at the Expense of Election Security and the Public Interest.
In addition to Weakening a Requirement that would Ban the Inclusion of Devices capable of Connecting to the Internet, the New Version of the VVSG 2.0 included other substantive Revisions that benefit the Vendors such as:
(i) Removal of the requirement for all voting systems to provide data reports that account for all cast ballots and all valid votes at the termination of a given election.
(ii) Removal of a transparency requirement granting public access, without an explicit request, to any cryptographic End-to-End protocol submitted for certification, for open review for two years before it enters the voting system certification process.
(iii) Limitation to voter-facing devices of the logging requirements for backend voting systems to record external connections or disconnections during the activated voting state.
(iv) Removal of a standard for physical locks installed in voting machines.
(v) Removal of the requirement that all physical security countermeasures which are reliant on electrical power log incidents of power disruption.
(vi) Removal of the requirement that systems be expected to have a life span of 10 years.
(vii) Removal of the ban on printing voting machine vendors’ advertisements on the ballot.
“The regulatory process has safeguards meant to prevent agency capture by private for-profit regulated entities. In holding regular, private meetings with voting machine vendors to discuss their proposed changes to the VVSG 2.0, the EAC violated the language and intent of the law,” said Courtney Hostetler, Senior Counsel for Free Speech For People.
It's time to revamp the EAC with New Members.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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