[EL] Internet Voting in Canada

Wed Sep 19 14:02:31 PDT 2012

It's a very grave situation for our democracy that states have moved ahead to allow some voters (overseas and military in most cases) vote over the internet by sending marked ballots via email.  They are uniquely vulnerable to undetectable tampering.  Our efforts as advocates to educate state and local election administrators to the true vulnerabilities lag behind.  Additionally, most voters that cast ballots this way waive their privacy rights which is also an unacceptable trend. 

Both the National Institute for Standards and Technology and cyber security expert Bruce McConnell at the Department of Homeland Security have warned against Internet voting.  See

 http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/pages/may-2012-statement-belinda-collins-nist-senior-advisor-voting-standards-int

here's the relevant graph:
In early 2011, NIST released NISTIR 7770, Security Considerations for Remote Electronic UOCAVA Voting, which studied Internet voting in more detail.  This report identified and analyzed current and emerging technologies that may mitigate risks to Internet voting.   It also identified several areas that require additional research and technological improvements.  The study concluded that Internet voting systems cannot currently be audited with a comparable level of confidence in the audit results as for those for polling place systems.    Malware on voters' personal computers poses a serious threat that could compromise the secrecy or integrity of voters' ballots.  And, the United States currently lacks an infrastructure for secure electronic voter authentication.  Therefore, NIST's research results indicate that additional research and development is needed to overcome these challenges before secure Internet voting will be feasible. NIST plans to continue to work with our partners in the public and private sectors on these issues.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/03/29/149634764/online-voting-premature-warns-government-cybersecurity-expert

>From the article " Bruce McConnell told a group of election officials, academics and advocacy groups meeting in Santa Fe, N.M., that he believes "it's premature to deploy Internet voting in real elections at this time."McConnell said voting systems are vulnerable and, "when you connect them to the Internet, that vulnerability increases." He called security around Internet voting "immature and underresourced."

-----Original Message-----
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph Lorenzo Hall
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 4:38 PM
To: Salvador Peralta
Cc: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Internet Voting in Canada

I *voted* in the Arizona 2000 primary held over the internet (by the democractic party). ::)

Anyway, I'm not keen to engage on why this kind of thing should be limited to "only used when necessary" (my view and the view of many
others) as there's not a lot new to be said there. To technical types and computer security experts, the threats to voting in governmental elections over the internet are so vastly different than other areas like e-commerce that it's almost a no-brainer. David Jefferson's full essay on the subject is worth the short read as it lays out the incentives and risks of doing anything over the internet that we care
about: http://thevotingnews.com/docs/Jefferson_IV_Revised.pdf

best, Joe (whose new job has very little to do with voting!)

On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 3:42 PM, Salvador Peralta <oregon.properties at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The Independent Party of Oregon has conducted 2 binding statewide 
> primary elections using the internet.
>
> In 2010, the party used a passcode-based system administered by 
> Everyone Counts.  In 2012, the party used a "hybrid" system in which 
> ballots were distributed to members via the web, but voters were 
> required to return a signed receipt along with some form of 
> identification.  Around 2400 voters participated in the 2010 election and about 1000 in 2012.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Sal Peralta
>
> ________________________________
> From: Michael McDonald <mmcdon at gmu.edu>
> To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 12:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [EL] Internet Voting in Canada
>
> We actually do have internet voting in the U.S. As of this morning, 
> 280 overseas civilian and military ballots have been returned via 
> e-mail and accepted by North Carolina election officials. 6 have been faxed.
>
> ============
> Dr. Michael P. McDonald
> Associate Professor
> George Mason University
> 4400 University Drive - 3F4
> Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
>
> 703-993-4191 (office)
> e-mail:  mmcdon at gmu.edu
> web:    http://elections.gmu.edu
> twitter: @ElectProject
>
> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of 
> wjk
> Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 3:15 PM
> To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> Subject: [EL] Internet Voting in Canada Reply to Good ol' Joe
>
>
> Good ol' Joe can do some incredibly tough name calling over the Internet.
> Wow, dude - you're a gutsy guy!
>
> Getting back to the election law issues, over 40 cities in Canada have 
> used Internet voting (after changing their laws to accommodate it). If good ol'
> Joe's 'scientifically validated' statement were true, then the entire 
> nation of Canada must be smoking something. This would have to include 
> Elections Canada, the agency that runs national elections, because, as 
> I show in my first article, they want to offer Internet voting for all 
> national elections.
>
> Joe's slightly exaggerated claim is emotion-based rather than factual. 
> He appears to be fully caught up in the Moral Panic over the supposed 
> insecurity of Internet voting - a Moral Panic that is uniquely American.
>
> Message: 15
> Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:41:02 -0400
> From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [EL] Canada?s National Debate over Internet Voting
> To: law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> Message-ID:
>     
> <CACDmtYYHEsuQ5yVjWCB_rWyPSQXF6VHvm3h0Kfdfd-o-YBg7Fg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> I don't often feed trolls, but when I do, I prefer them to be William 
> Kelleher.
>
> Suffice it to say that every single technical expert you can find will 
> advise vociferously against internet voting at this time.
>
> That is all and sorry for unusual snark from me.
>
> best, Joe
>
> On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 2:17 PM, wjk <wjkellpro at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> Canada?s National Debate over Internet Voting: Part Three - The Drum 
>> Beat Grows Louder for Internet Voting in Canada
>>
>> http://ivn.us/tomorrows-democracy/2012/09/17/canadas-national-debate-
>> over-internet-voting-part-3/ "Big Mo," as campaign directors say, is 
>> in favor of Internet voting in Canada. Even Native Canadians are 
>> doing it! Check out the first two posts, too!
>>
>> More to come on security issues ?
>>
>> William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
>> Political Scientist, author, speaker, CEO for The Internet Voting 
>> Research and Education Fund a CA Nonprofit Foundation
>> Email: Internetvoting at gmail.com
>> Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
>> Twitter: wjkno1
>>
>> Author of Internet Voting Now!
>> Kindle edition: http://tinyurl.com/IntV-Now In paper: 
>> http://tinyurl.com/IVNow2011
>>
>
>
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