Verified Voting Newsletter, Issue 6 May 05, 2010    The latest election integrity news from the team at Verified Voting. Voting Systems in the May 2010 Primaries The 2010 primary season heats up in May, with 10 states holding elections. These include a contested race for the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio, contested Democratic U.S. Senate primaries in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas, and a contested Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky. The May primary states are: Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio on May 4; Nebraska and West Virginia on May 11; Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon, and Pennsylvania May 18; and Idaho on May 25. The May primary calendar is a reminder of the work we have yet to do to establish the two fundamentals of verified voting: a reliable voter-verified paper record (VVPR) of every vote, and a manual audit of a random sample of ballots. Read a summary of voting systems in the May primaries... Read detailed state races, voting systems, audit provisions, and recount laws...   California Legislation Calls for Risk-Limiting Pilot Audits Over the past year, election auditing experts, including Verified Voting's staff, have been working with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office toward improving California's audits. Now legislation authorizing the Secretary of State to work with a minimum of five volunteer counties to conduct pilot risk-limiting audits in 2011 is making good progress. The Secretary of State will report to the legislature on the risk-limiting pilots, and how their effectiveness, efficiency, and cost compare to those of the current 1% manual tally. Currently, California law requires hand counting all contests on ballots from one percent of randomly selected precincts in each county, and comparing those hand counted totals with the announced election results... Read the full article...   Military and Overseas Voting Update For members of the military, their families, and other United States citizens living overseas, voting has always presented unique challenges. Some of these problems include reliable delivery of blank ballots to the voters, secure and timely return of voted ballots, and authenticating that ballots were completed and returned by the same person they were sent to. In 2009, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE) became law. MOVE seeks to improve voting access by eliminating requirements that ballots be notarized, requiring states to make voter registration and absentee ballot applications available electronically, and requiring states to allow a 45 day period for voted ballots to be returned. Effective this year, the MOVE act has put election officials under much pressure to implement it in time for the 2010 primary elections. But as states rush to put electronic access to blank ballots in place, too many are allowing voted ballots to be returned electronically as well, something that MOVE does not require, and that presents serious problems of privacy and security... Read the full article...   Verified Voting Comments on EAC Internet Pilot Requirements With many states already deploying a form of Internet voting, email return of voted ballots (see map), it is important that requirements for remote voting systems and the pilot programs that test them reflect the highest standards for security. On April 30, 2010, Verified Voting submitted comments to the EAC on proposed testing requirements for military and overseas voting pilot programs that use remote technologies such as Internet Voting. In a letter to the EAC, president Pam Smith said that the comments focused on "the broad outlines of the pilot program and core precepts to which we believe any pilots should adhere." Sending voted ballots over the public Internet "is in a security class by itself," the letter noted, and these ballots are vulnerable to attacks from a wide range of individuals, organizations, and even governments. "Voting systems for UOCAVA voters should not be held to a higher security standard than domestic absentee voting," the letter said, "nor should UOCAVA voters be required to use a system that is less secure than those used by voters back home."... Read the full article... Overseas Voting Summit in Munich In March, the Overseas Voting Foundation sponsored Summit 2010, a conference addressing overseas and military voting issues. The conference brought together a wide variety of experts, advocates, election officials, members of the military and foreign services, and Secretaries of State. Panels and breakout sessions discussed a wide range of topics including the impact of recent federal legislation, the unique needs of military voters, and the pros and cons of Internet based voting. As part of the summit, a unique debate on Internet voting was held. Participating in the debate were technology and election integrity experts, including Verified Voting President Pam Smith. Prior to the debate, Professor Andrew Appel of Princeton University gave a comprehensive presentation [pdf] explaining what is meant by Internet based voting and defining debate parameters. Links to video of the debate, are available at OVF's site (scroll to the bottom of the page for video links). Efficient Auditing of Election Results On March 27 and 28, 2010, Verified Voting and Common Cause sponsored a meeting of in Washington, D.C. to share experiences and ideas for improving post-election audits. The participants included election officials, statisticians, computer and political scientists, election integrity advocates, and voting system vendor technical staff. This meeting marked the first time that diverse stakeholders, including voting systems vendors, met together for the explicit purpose of identifying the potential benefits and challenges of using small batches of ballots (i.e., smaller than precincts -- down to and including individual ballot records) to make audits more effective and efficient... Read the full article... Other Items of Interest 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 May Primaries California Audit Pilots Overseas Voting Update VV Comments on EAC Overseas Pilots Proposal Internet Voting Summit Audit Meeting Items of Interest   Latest News ASA Endorses Risk-Limiting Audits Voting Machines Fail Pre-Election Test Internet Voting, Still in Beta   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. 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