NYT: U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari () OLTECO com>
Date: January 3, 2007 11:43:52 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: NYT: U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting

        Oh boy...and so it goes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/washington/04voting.html? 
_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

January 4, 2007
U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting
By CHRISTOPHER DREW

A laboratory that has tested most of the nation's electronic voting
systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after
federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control
procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the
required tests.

The company, Ciber Inc. of Greenwood Village, Colo., has also come
under fire from analysts hired by New York State over its plans to
test new voting machines for the state. New York could eventually
spend $200 million to replace its aging lever devices.

Experts on voting systems say the Ciber problems underscore
longstanding worries about lax inspections in the secretive world of
voting-machine testing. The action by the federal Election Assistance
Commission seems certain to fan growing concerns about the
reliability and security of the devices.

The commission acted last summer, but the problem was not disclosed
then. Officials at the commission and Ciber confirmed the action in
recent interviews.

Ciber, the largest tester of the nation's voting machine software,
says it is fixing its problems and expects to gain certification soon.

Experts say the deficiencies of the laboratory suggest that crucial
features like the vote-counting software and security against hacking
may not have been thoroughly tested on many machines now in use.

"What's scary is that we've been using systems in elections that
Ciber had certified, and this calls into question those systems that
they tested," said Aviel D. Rubin, a computer science professor at
Johns Hopkins.

Professor Rubin said that although some software bugs had shown up
quickly, in other instances "you might have to use the systems for a
while before something happens."

Officials at the commission and other election experts said it was
essential for a laboratory to follow its quality-control procedures
and document all its testing processes to instill confidence in the
results.

,snip>

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