17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC VOTING FALL 2004 COPYRIGHT © 2004 MICHAEL I. SHAMOS 17-803/17-400 Electronic Voting Session 3: Punched-Card Systems Michael I.

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC VOTING FALL 2004

COPYRIGHT © 2004 MICHAEL I. SHAMOS

17-803/17-400 Electronic Voting

Session 3: Punched-Card Systems

Michael I. Shamos, Ph.D., J.D.Institute for Software Research International

Carnegie Mellon University



Student Projects

• Internet voting review• Verifiability without paper• Voter privacy assessment• Code hiding

– Can code be hidden undetectably?

• Alternative voting systems– ATM, lottery

• Secure software distribution– Assure that software inside voting machines is genuine

• Voting security standards– What should they look like?



Qualification/Certification

• The Federal Election Commission (FEC) published voluntary standards for voting systems

• Many states have made the standards mandatory• How to test against them?• The National Association of State Election Directors

(NASED) has authorized a small number of Independent testing authorities to qualify voting systems

• After qualification, most states have a certification process to verify that the system satisfies state law



Qualification/Certification Problems

• The FEC standards are inadequate for software security

• The ITAs operate in secret– Don’t publish their testing protocols– Don’t publish their findings, just whether a system passed

• The ITAs are paid by the vendors• State certifications are cursory, usually not performed

by experts



Help America Vote Act of 2002

• Payments to states to replace paper and level machines: $3 billion

• Establishes Election Assistance Commission• Reforms the standards process (National Institute of

Standards and Technology)• Provisional voting• Statewide registration systems• Complaint procedure

Punch Card Voting• Will be used by about 14% of the U.S. in 2004• Will be used in 69 of 88 counties in Ohio (PA only

has 67 counties)• Began in the 1960s with the IBM Porta-Punch• By 2000 was used in 37% of the U.S., until Florida



Votomatic Punched-Card System

SOURCE: DOUG JONES

312

228




Votomatic Punch-Card System

VOTING BOOTH

BALLOT FRAME

VOTINGSTYLUS

BALLOTSEALS

VOTING SETUP



Punched Card (14%)

CHAD

POSITIONS 4, 20, 60, 82, 117 ARE PUNCHED

NO CANDIDATE NAMES ON CARD

STUB FORWRITE-INS

REGISTRATIONHOLES

HOLES NOT ALWAYS RECTANGULAR



Punched Card (14%)

SOURCE: MICHIGAN SOS




SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES



Issues

• Cards• Human Factors• Card Handling• Readers• Ballot Definition• Recounts

– What constitutes a vote?



Card Manufacture

• Card stock– Humidity

• Prescored cards– Dies: depth, location of scoring



Ballot Frames

• Card registration• Stylus• Punch pressure

SOURCE: PETER SHEERIN



Ballot Frames

• Rubber backing• Chad jams




Chads




Hanging Chad




Datavote

• Uses a die to punch a clean hole• Employed in a small

fraction of punch cardcounties



Human Factors

• Ballot pages• Ballot review• Spoiled ballot• Overvoting• “Butterfly ballot”• “No butterfly ballot may be used as an official ballot in

any referendum, primary, or other election.” N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-165.4B



Palm Beach County “Butterfly” Ballot

SOURCE: SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL



Buchanan Vote by County (Florida, 2000)

GRAPH COURTESY OF

PROF. GREG ADAMSCARNEGIE MELLON

&PROF. CHRIS FASTNOW

CHATHAM COLLEGE

SOURCE: PROF. GREG ADAMS

Broward (Fort Lauderdale)

Miami-Dade

Hillsborough (Tampa)

Pinellas (St. Petersburg-Clearwater)

Orange (Orlando)

LINEAR FIT WITHOUT PALM BEACH, BROWARD, MIAMI-DADE

(PURPLE ANNOTATIONS ADDED)



Broward County Ballot Page

SOURCE: BROWARD COUNTY



Counting Punched Cards

SOURCE: LOS ANGELES COUNTY



Ballot “Programming”

• Inform the tabulation system of the correspondence between punch positions and candidate names



Card Readers

• Manufacturer• Reading the card changes the card• Chads fall out, chads are replaced• Role of “chad teams”



Counting Punched Cards




Recount

• When a ballot is handled, it can be changed• The voter’s intent must be determined• Suppose only one of four corners is detached. It is a

vote?• Dimpled chad, pregnant chad: how to count?



What Constitutes a Vote?

• “Each State shall adopt uniform and nondiscriminatory standards that define what constitutes a vote and what will be counted as a vote for each category of voting system used in the State.”

HAVA, 42 U.S.C. § 15481(a)(6)

• TABLE• PENNSYLVANIA



Punched-Card Problems

• Can’t see whom you’re voting for• Registration of card in ballot frame• Must use stylus: no positive feedback on punch• Hanging chad: chad that is partially attached to the

card– How may corners?– Hanging chad causes count to differ every time

• Dimple: chad that is completely attached but shows evidence of an attempt to punch– Dimple can turn into a vote on multiple readings



QA&



What’s a Recount?

• Purpose: “verify” that the original tabulation was correct

• Three kinds of recounts:– A. Physical ballots exist: Count them again.– B. Computer records exist: Tabulate them again.– C. No physical ballots or computer records exist

(e.g. lever machines): Read the counters again




17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC VOTING FALL 2004 COPYRIGHT © 2004 MICHAEL I. SHAMOS 17-803/17-400 Electronic Voting Session 3: Punched-Card Systems Michael I.

Documents

electronic voting fall

electronic voting session

punch card voting

voting machines

voting systemsnased

voting systemsstandards

card system slide

florida slide