US States Pulling Out All Stops to Test Voting Machines

Some US states that use voting machines are taking dramatic measures to ensure the effectiveness and reliability of the machines in an effort to comply with a January 1st deadline set out in the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Vote Act) North Carolina legislation requires suppliers of the voting machines to deliver to the state in escrow all "software that is relevant to functionality, setup, configuration, and operation of the voting system", and to provide a list of all the programmers that worked on the software. Violations of the law are punishable by a criminal felony conviction and a civil fine of up to $100,000. A leading electronic voting machine manufacturer, Diebold Inc (Diebold), claimed that it was unable to comply with the law, as it had licensed some of the software, such as Microsoft Windows, from third parties, and did not have the source code to disclose. Diebold asked a North Carolina court to shield it from criminal prosecution under the law, but the court refused Diebold's application. In response, Diebold at first threatened to pull out of the process, but has since decided to remain and provide what software it can. Diebold is one of three approved suppliers of voting machines in the state, and all three companies have systems using third party software. In California, the Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has declared his intention to use the services of an outside "hacker" to test the security features of the Diebold machines. The proposed hacker test and a source code escrow are just two steps in a ten-step plan put forward for certification of the machines. For more news reports on the topic, see: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/13304893.htm; and http://makeashorterlink.com/?O20A6154C For the text of the new Vote Act, visit: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2005/Bills/Senate/HTML/S223v6.html Summary by: James Kosa