Eminent Computer Scientist Criticizes ES&S "Real Time Audit Log"

Eminent Computer Scientist Criticizes ES&S "Real Time Audit Log"

“The Real time Audit Log places high cognitive burdens on the voter, is extraordinarily error prone for the auditor, and is possibly illegal in states that are strict about voting privacy."

By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA

June 21, 2006

At a recent North Carolina State Board of Election symposium in NewBern, it was disclosed that ES&S will be making changes to the way the iVotronic Touchscreen paper voter verified audit trail is printed. Currently the iVotronics fulfill state requirements for a voter verieid paper record through the use of a “Real Time Audit Log" (RTAL), a printout that records every action that the voter performs but does provide the voter with a summary to review before casting the vote.

In his comments to the State Board of Elections David Jefferson (pictured at right) of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who serves on the California Voting System Techology Assessment and Advisory Board, described (RTAL) as a terrible design for a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT), that should never have been seriously considered for certification. His full commentary follows.

snip

For the auditor the problem with the RTAL is that in order to determine how a voter voted on a particular race, he must read each voter session on the paper audit log *backwards* in order to find the *last* recorded event for each office to know who was finally voted for. Earlier audit lines printed for the same office represent tentative choices the voter changed during the voting process. This RTAL design is certain to lead to a very high audit error rate, as auditors mistakenly record a tentative voter choice instead of the final choice as representing the voter's true intent. The only way to reduce such errors with the RTAL design is to further slow down the already slow audit process.

snip

In my opinion there is no reason why this RTAL design should ever have been contemplated for public elections, and I do not understand how it could have been certified. I personally told ES&S about these problems almost two years ago in a public hearing in California. I think ES&S should be asked to change their RTAL design to a more conventional vote summary VVPAT."

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1414&Itemid=51

You know, red for Herr bu$h and blue for everything else. Make everybody sign their ballots. It's the new Murican way. . . . :sarcasm:

Electoral Stuff & Steal

Doing everything they can to keep us divided from democracy.

And making a killing while they are at it.

I think he might be a wee bit TOO polite, but of course it does sound more professional to frame it thusly.

Paper ballots and hand counts are the best way to go.

K&R