E-Voting Audit Ready for Public 

A security audit ordered by Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich on Diebold Election Systems' touch-screen voting machines is complete, and a version of it is ready for public consumption.

Shareese DeLeaver of the governor's office said the 200-page report has been shown to Diebold officials and is now being reviewed by the state's Department of Budget and Management and the State Board of Elections. The report was commissioned by the governor after researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Rice University discovered serious security flaws (PDF) in code for the AccuVote-TS voting terminals.

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A redacted version of the report, with information useful to malicious crackers taken out, will be available on the state's website Friday or early next week. The severity of Hurricane Isabel and the amount of energy the governor's office must devote to recovery from the storm will determine the timing of the report's posting.

Last month Gov. Ehrlich charged Science Applications International, or SAIC, in San Diego with conducting the audit before the state would proceed with a $55.6 million purchase and servicing contract for Diebold's electronic voting machines. Ehrlich said it was imperative the government ensure the integrity of the election process by conducting "a thorough, fully independent review of the Diebold system."

Diebold has maintained that its system has no security vulnerabilities.

Jim Pettit, spokesman for Maryland's board of elections, said that before the report is released, all parties, including Diebold, SAIC, the board of elections and the department of budget and management, need to work out "legal, procurement and technical" issues.

Once the review of the report is done, the department of budget and management "will make a recommendation to the governor on how to proceed," he said.

The SAIC audit is "comprehensive, lengthy and there are a lot of recommendations in it," according to Pettit. He declined to elaborate on the recommendations but acknowledged that state officials and SAIC considered the specific issues raised by the Johns Hopkins researchers.

Some of those recommendations are security changes Diebold must make before the state will adopt the company's systems, according to Pettit.

"Before going forward with the system, all of these recommendations have to be implemented," he said.

He noted that SAIC, which is now fully familiar with the software and the process of using the systems, will likely re-review the software for the state once changes have been made. Pettit said it is possible that such changes could be made by the March 2004 primary election.

But, he cautioned, nothing has been decided about whether to go forward with the Diebold systems. If the department of budget and management recommends not using Diebold, the state will have to choose an alternate voting system by March, Pettit said. Maryland law calls for the entire state to adopt a unified voting system by 2006, but some jurisdictions need to have a unified system in place by March.

"Right now all options are on the table," Pettit said. "If we get one of our technical people who says 'there's a showstopper in here,'" then the Diebold system would be replaced. "That's still possible. Some things are still being looked at."

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More stories written by Kim Zetter