Senior Project

Electronic Voting Machines Implication Bungled

The 2000 presidential election was historic, (facts about fl). As a result Congress implemented the Help Americans Vote Act (explain). However, in the race to implement the requirement to use electronic voting machines (true?), the implication became horribly bungled.

The software so hastily written. Bad process (from report); no comments; anyone could commit changes; no review process.

As a result, many issues have come up. Security and mistakes

Theoretical mistakes (can’t recount – so don’t know if mistake)

Have not affected an election yet – that we know of; but some elections close (Al Frankin) – what machines used then?

Societal implications about having accurate machines; needed for democracy

Not an excuse to ignore vulnerabilities with the machines; problem with old machines yes – but now is the chance to fix problems with old system (accessibility, security); goal is not to = security of old system but perfect security (absence of no insecurities)

Why does society accept this?

What we can do to fix: open source code (let people review), more careful coding standards, voter verified paper trails