Security of Electronic Voting Condemned by NIST

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Security of Electronic Voting Is Condemned

Paper systems should be included, agency says.

By Cameron W. Barr

The Washington Post

Friday 01 December 2006

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106Z.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001637.html

Paperless electronic voting machines used throughout the Washington region and much of the country "cannot be made secure," according to draft recommendations issued this week by a federal agency that advises the US Election Assistance Commission.

The assessment by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, one of the government's premier research centers, is the most sweeping condemnation of such voting systems by a federal agency.

In a report hailed by critics of electronic voting, NIST said that voting systems should allow election officials to recount ballots independently from a voting machine's software. The recommendations endorse "optical-scan" systems in which voters mark paper ballots that are read by a computer and electronic systems that print a paper summary of each ballot, which voters review and elections officials save for recounts.

See Full Story…

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120106Z.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001637.html

ENDS