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Hopkins study pods ehrlich action { August 6 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-voting0807,0,1116285.story?coll=bal-local-headlineshttp://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-voting0807,0,1116285.story?coll=bal-local-headlines
From Thursday's Sun
Voting machine review ordered
Hopkins study of security flaws prods Ehrlich action; State to buy 11,000 touch-screens; California firm to analyze integrity of software
By David Nitkin
Sun Staff
August 6, 2003, 8:48 PM EDT
In the wake of a study revealing security flaws in the costly touch-screen voting machines Maryland has agreed to buy, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ordered an outside review Wednesday of the electronic system scheduled to be in place for next spring's presidential primary election.
Science Application International Corp. of San Diego will complete the evaluation in four weeks, delivering findings that will determine whether Maryland moves forward with the $55.6 million purchase of new machines for 19 counties, asks for alterations to improve accuracy or scuttles the plan altogether.
"The governor's first and foremost concern is public confidence in the system," said Henry Fawell, an Ehrlich spokesman. "If insuring public confidence means conducting an independent review, then he believes that is the appropriate step to take."
With the analysis pending, the state's purchase of the new machines "is not a certainty," Fawell said.
Ehrlich's order comes less than two weeks after Johns Hopkins University researchers concluded that the AccuVote-TS machines built by Diebold Election Systems of McKinney, Texas, were vulnerable to hackers, multiple votes and vote-switching.
Maryland recently agreed to buy more than 11,000 of the machines, placing the state on the leading edge of a movement to upgrade voting technology after the error-ridden 2000 presidential election in Florida.
The researchers based their results on a review of the computer code that runs the system. Diebold has countered that the study used an outdated version of the code and did not account for real-world safeguards that protect against abuse.
Diebold officials said Wednesday that the company will cooperate with the evaluation, which they said was the first of its kind among the several states already using the touch-screen terminals and software.
In Maryland, four counties -- Allegany, Dorchester, Montgomery and Prince George's -- used the machines for last year's election, largely without incident.
"We are confident that no problems will arise from the review," said Diebold spokesman Michael A. Jacobsen. "Should the third-party review require action on our part, we are going to work closely with the customer, in this case Maryland, to make sure their needs are met."
While praising the quality and reputation of the California company that will perform the evaluation, Aviel Rubin, technical director of Hopkins' Information Security Institute, said he was troubled that neither Diebold nor Maryland officials have contacted him or his colleagues to talk about their findings.
"I am really surprised that they are not having SAIC talk to us. I'm very disappointed in that," Rubin said. "No one from the state of Maryland has talked to us."
Fawell said the California company would review the Hopkins report, but said the researchers would not be contacted directly to keep the evaluation as independent as possible.
He also said that Diebold has agreed to allow SAIC to review the proprietary code for the voting system, a condition that Rubin called important to a thorough analysis.
The Hopkins study has stoked an intense national debate over whether electronic voting machines are secure and accurate enough to justify expensive federal and state efforts to replace older technology.
Some say Ehrlich should use the latest findings to pull the plug on the state's impending investment.
"The state was a guinea pig in this whole process," said former Del. Cheryl C. Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat who has criticized the Glendening administration's selection of Diebold to provide the machines.
"The [19 counties] should keep what they've got, rather than going headlong into a new process that has yet to be suc cessfully tested.
"Especially in bad fiscal times, $55 million in new technology that might be flawed is irresponsible, if not obscene," Kagan said.
In Baltimore County, where chief technology officer Thomas G. Iler was part of a state panel that raised questions about the new system, officials have asked for the new system to be delayed. The state has denied the request.
"The [governor's] decision underscores our stated concerns about the newness of the technology, and the caution that needs to be taken when applying a new technology to a critical function of government," Iler said Wednesday.
"The governor is making a good step."
Administration and state elections board officials have shown little willingness to delay buying the machines, saying Maryland is required under state and federal law to upgrade its voting technologies.
State Board of Elections administrator Linda Lamone has said the Diebold machines performed well enough in the four counties last year to justify their widespread introduction.
"We at the state board have confidence in the Diebold system," said board chairman Gilles Burger in a statement Wednesday.
"We hold the utmost value in voter integrity and security and take credible claims of vulnerability seriously."
Maryland has an existing two-year $2.6 million contract with SAIC to analyze software the state is buying and security associated with it.
The review ordered by Ehrlich will not cost the state additional money, Fawell said.
Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun
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