Verified Voting Newsletter, Issue 5 December 18, 2009    The latest election integrity news from the team at Verified Voting. Verified Voting's 2009 Year in Review A note from the President: As we catch our breath from the very busy year that 2009 has turned out to be, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported Verified Voting and our shared goals of making sure our elections are observable, reliable, accessible and publicly verifiable. We have grown this year, and look forward to growing more in the years to come to better address the many challenges - some dire, some exciting - that face us. We could not do this without you! We bring you a wrap-up with articles about the need to find solutions for the challenges of military and overseas voting (without creating new security problems); a report on efforts to create a standard for election data, and why that matters; and year end summaries from the nation's capital and around the states. We're proud of our new blog at blog.verifiedvoting.org, and invite you to visit there regularly for ongoing updates. We invite you to follow us on Twitter @verifiedvoting too! And as the holiday season nears (and a new election year!) - we hope you will consider a gift to support our efforts. You can always visit http://verifiedvoting.org/donate; and don't forget as you finish your holiday shopping, you can "Goodshop" for Verified Voting too! See below for details). We look forward to working with you in 2010. Best always, Pamela Smith, President Verified Voting   2009 Issues - Internet Voting As changes in technology affect all aspects of our lives, it is not surprising that the impact of technology should be examined in the context of voting. For years, technologists with the expertise to understand issues of security, the Internet and voting have warned about the challenges presented by Internet voting. Nonetheless,2009 saw growing interest in online ballot casting. In September of 2008, a statement by computer technologists warned: "Election results must be verifiably accurate -- that is, auditable with a permanent, voter-verified record that is independent of hardware or software. Several serious, potentially insurmountable, technical challenges must be met if elections conducted by transmitting votes over the internet are to be verifiable... Internet voting should only be adopted after these technical challenges have been overcome, and after extensive and fully informed public discussion of the technical and non-technical issues has established that the people of the U.S. are comfortable embracing this radically new form of voting." Despite these warnings, Internet voting made many inroads in 2009 and will be an issue of enormous importance in the year ahead for election integrity advocates. Read the full article...   2009 Issues - The Need for Election Data Standards One of the challenges faced by advocates of election audits and transparency is that current voting systems each record and store election file data in unique ways. This is no surprise given that vendors have long claimed that their systems are proprietary. But the current model of storing election data in ways that prevent easy sharing and analysis is proving difficult for election officials, statisticians, election integrity advocates, and even voting systems vendors. Because of these problems, serious discussion is taking place about what can be done about standardizing election data. Typically, within a single state there are many different voting systems from multiple vendors. At the same time, many elections including most federal and statewide races, cross election jurisdictions so that votes for the same race are reported in different ways, depending on the system type used in each district. Even a single polling place may have different types of equipment - an optical scanner and a touch screen device for accessible voting for example - which report results in incompatible ways but which must be combined after the polls close. Not only would audits benefit, but a common data standard would make it far easier for members of the public and the media to access and analyze post-election data, increasing transparency and providing independent oversight of reported results. Read the full article...   2009 on Capitol Hill Having a presence on Capitol Hill this year has allowed Verified Voting to be more fully involved in hearings and conferences that complement our traditional areas of concern. In particular the interest in using internet technologyin the administration of elections has highlighted the importance of cyber security policy in Verified Voting's activities. In addition to hearings in various committees concerned with protecting the nation from cyber threats, Verified Voting attended the Cyber Security and National Defense Conference hosted by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement in May. Congress has failed to address Verified Voting's top priorities of accurate and verifiable voting technology, routine mandatory audits and increased transparency in the administration of elections. Rep. Rush Holt introduced a new version of his Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, calling for voter marked paper ballots, post election audits and a numerous important election security safeguards and Senator Bill Nelson has introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Verified Voting strongly support these bills, but thus far they have not seen committee action in either chamber. Read the full article...   2009 in the States 2009 has been an eventful year for verified voting in the states. The year saw more progress toward policies that provide trustworthy voting - as well as significant efforts to reverse progress already made. Verified Voting has played an important role in both fighting for reform and holding the line against reversals. The New Challenge: Internet Voting for Military and Overseas Voters The most disturbing development in 2009 was a headlong rush toward allowing military and overseas voters to submit voted, secret ballots electronically. The Internet can be used wisely to help voters in uniform and those living abroad. Blank ballots can be delivered electronically for return via regular or Express mail delivery. As the Pew Report on military voting shows, electronic ballot submission is not necessary to solve the many problems that uniformed and overseas voters face in the voting process. And as the Computer Technologists' Statement on Internet Voting, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology report on overseas voting show, there is currently no existing way of securely sending voted ballots over the Internet. Read the full article...   Other Items of Interest Help Verified Voting Foundation with GoodShop and GoodSearch This holiday season, you don't have to choose between getting gifts and supporting this important cause - you can give while you shop! Use GoodShop, an online shopping portal where merchants donate up to 30 percent of each purchase to Verified Voting Foundation when you place online orders using this page: Order online using GoodShop GoodSearch.com is a search engine that donates half its advertising revenue to causes supported by its users. Use it just as you would any search engine, and every time you search the web with our GoodSearch link, Verified Voting Foundation will get a contribution! The more you search, the more it adds up -- at no cost to you! Search the web using GoodSearch Overseas and Military Voters Online Surveys Are you a military or overseas voter? There is still time to take an important survey about absentee voting! The Alliance for Military and Overseas Voting Rights (AMOVR) has developed two surveys of US military members, their families and overseas civilians on their experiences with the absentee voting process. The military family survey is located here: http://tiny.cc/AMOVR_Military The overseas civilian survey is located here: http://tiny.cc/AMOVR_Overseas Subscribe to Voting News Did you know you can receive daily updates on current news about election issues and voting systems in your email Inbox? It's free! Sign up for the Voting News here Support Verified Voting Your support makes our work possible. Donations can be made online here: http://verifiedvoting.org/donate Or mail a donation to PO Box 4104, Carlsbad, CA 92018-4104. Please note on your check whether you want to support VerifiedVoting.org (lobbying, not tax-deductible) or Verified Voting Foundation (tax-deductible). Thank you for all you do!   "The core of our American democracy is the right to vote." In This Issue Internet Voting Election Data Standards 2009 in the Capitol 2009 in the States Items of Interest   Latest News VV Internet Voting Comments TN - Voters Need Confidence in Elections Overseas Voting - The Power to MOVE   Quick Links Contact Verified Voting Donate Take Action About Verified Voting VV on Twitter   Help Our Elections Please contribute to the effort for reliable and publicly verifiable election systems. CLICK HERE TO DONATE VerifiedVoting.org is a lobbying non-profit 501(c)(4) organization. Verified Voting Foundation is a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit organization.   The Verifier How do Americans cast their ballots? See the Verifier Map for detailed information on voting systems used in each state and county in recent elections. VIEW THE VERIFIER   Contact Us | Verified Voting | PO Box 4104 | Carlsbad | CA | 92018 To unsubscribe from this newsletter, send an email to unsubscribe@verifiedvoting.org