[EL] SIGN ON REQUEST: Coalition letter urging fixes to security flaws in LA County's new publicly-owned voting system

[Trent Lange]

Hello state and national partners and friends --

In February I asked organizations to sign our coalition letter urging
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to require fixes to security
flaws in Los Angeles' County's new publicly-developed "VSAP" voting system.
  The system has advantages, but we and other election experts like Drs.
Phil Stark, Richard DeMillo, Doug Jones, and others believe these security
flaws must be fixed before Secretary Padilla gives final certification to
the system and it's presented as a model to the nation.

We submitted the oriinal letter with 36 signers to Secretary Padilla on
March 3rd.  Thanks to those of you who signed and who have signed since!
Unfortunately, Secretary Padilla has not responded yet.  Tomorrow is the
official comment deadline for whether to certify the latest version of the
voting system.

*Please let me know by 3pm PST tomorrow, Tuesday, 9/15 if you can sign on
to the attached updated coalition letter (current 74 signers listed)
originally drafted by California Clean Money Campaign, National Election
Defense Coalition, and Free Speech for People *and signed by academic
election security experts like Drs. Stark, DeMillo, Jones, Buell, Hench,
and Martin.

*We also have a joint action on ActionNetwork *to generate official
comments to the SoS.  Let me know if your organization would like to join,
or you can just sign it as an individual yourself here:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/la-voting-system?source=lavsap_CCMAF-coalition

*DETAILS*
*The letter requests *that Sec. Padilla require the following problems be
fixed before giving LA's system final certification, *"to enhance voters’
trust in the integrity of elections in Los Angeles and wherever the system
might be used in the future":*

   - Unlike voting systems in other counties, it doesn't give voters the
   option to use normal hand-marked paper ballots. Instead, L.A's optional
   write-in ballots make voters handwrite everything — offices, candidates,
   etc. — which slows down voters and induces errors that may disenfranchise
   them.
   - To submit their ballot, voters must put it back into the ballot
   marking device (BMD) where it passes under the printhead which gives
   hackers an opportunity to alter it. UC Berkeley Professor Philip Stark,
   inventor of risk-limiting audits, called this a *"security fail"*.
   - Votes are counted using QR codes that voters can't easily verify —
   which Colorado's Secretary of State banned because they are *"potentially
   subject to manipulation".*

Also, the source code has not yet been publicly disclosed as open-source or
otherwise, which was a requirement for using public funds to develop it,
further adding to concerns about a lack of transparency and security.

The letter does *not* ask that all of these issues be fixed by the upcoming
election, though it does ask that LA County be required to use regular
ballot boxes in this election, rather than using the BMDs as ballot boxes.
But this is Secretary Padilla's opportunity to mandate that they are fixed
before the system is certified for use in following elections.

*This isn't just a California issue*.  Many parts of the new system are
quite good, but because it will be held up as a model of a publicly-owned
voting system for the rest of the country, it's especially important that
not get final certification with security flaws like being mechanically
possible for hackers to alter verified ballots and relying on QR codes to
tabulate votes.

*So please let me know if you can sign on to the letter, either as an
organization or individual if you haven't yet.*

Let me know if you have any questions,

- Trent

-- 
Trent Lange, PhD
President and Executive Director
California Clean Money Campaign
Sponsor of AB 249, the *California DISCLOSE Act*
(310) 428-1556
www.YesFairElections.org
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