Baltimore ACM Chapter

Baltimore ACM Members and Friends,

With the prospect of an exciting election in November, the Baltimore
ACM Chapter invites you to join us for an informative evening on
Voting in the Age of Technology, which will cover many misunderstood
and controversial topics of electronic voting systems.

When: Thursday, October 21st
Networking and information session at 7:30 pm
Lecture at 8:00 pm

Where: The Engineering Society of Baltimore
11 W. Mount Vernon Place
Baltimore, MD 21201
http://www.esb.org/

This meeting is free and open to the public. While not required,
please RSVP to Craig Holcomb, cholcomb@acm.org, so we can get an
estimate of attendance.

Voting in the Age of Technology

William A. Edelstein, Ph.D.

The contentious presidential election in 2000, with its infamous
"hanging chads," motivated Congress to pass the 2002 Help America Vote
Act (HAVA) that supplied substantial funds to upgrade America's voting
technology. In practice, this opened a giant can of worms creating
questions about all means of voting. The fundamental problem is that
voting must be anonymous. In contrast, bank activity or financial
transactions over the internet have identifiable records visible in
multiple ways to bank/company staff and to users. The two most common
voting systems now in use in the US are touchscreen voting machines,
aka Direct Recording Electronic devices (DREs) and paper ballot
optical scan (PBOS). DREs do not have permanent records of individual
votes that can be independently checked, and DREs cannot be audited or
recounted. DREs have caused very long lines and consequent waits (in
Maryland, for example) because they are expensive and there are never
enough.

Multiple investigations by computer security experts have
demonstrated that DREs can be hacked, and there is always the worry of
malware infection. Although no examples of hacking have yet been
conclusively demonstrated in actual elections, the possibility remains
that this could be done in future, for example, by the government
owners of the voting system, i.e. an insider attack. DREs have, in
numerous cases, simply failed and irretrievably lost votes. PBOS
systems are now in the majority. These are more cost effective than
DREs and can be audited or recounted, as was done effectively in the
2008 Minnesota senatorial contest. The security of PBOS is much
improved over the ballot stuffing days of Mayor Daley in Chicago, but
there is much room for further work, particularly in carrying out
random audits to confirm results. There is now a push for internet
voting. This is almost universally condemned by computer security
experts but their objections have been brushed aside by many election
officials for whom convenience trumps all.

Recently an internet voting system set up by DC for overseas military
personnel was completely compromised by Professor Alex Halderman and
his students at the University of Michigan. This included changing all
the votes cast and playing the Michigan fight song when a ballot was
downloaded. There have been serious election technology disputes or
problems around the world, such as in the UK and India. Voting
technology is a fascinating and important subject which will garner a
lot of activity for the foreseeable future.

William Edelstein, Ph.D., physicist, is Visiting Distinguished
Professor of Radiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
(http://www.mri.jhu.edu/~edelstei/ ). His main research interest is
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). For his MRI work he was awarded the
Gold Medal Prize from the International Society of Magnetic Resonance
in Medicine (ISMRM) in 1990 and the Industrial Applications of Physics
Prize from the American Institute of Physics in 2005. He is a Fellow
of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics
(UK) and a Fellow of the ISMRM. He has been working on voting
technology issues for the past 5 years and serves on the Voting
Committee of USACM, the US Public Policy Council of the ACM.

Transportation

Light Rail:

From the light rail stop at Howard and Centre, walk a block north,
turn right on Monument, then go four blocks east to Mt. Vernon
Place. The light rail schedule is on the web at:

http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/lightrail/schedule/

Driving Directions:

From the south:

Either take 95 to Exit 53 and follow the signs to Inner Harbor, or
take 295, continuing as the freeway ends and becomes Russell St.
Turn Right on Pratt Street. Turn Left on Charles Street (one-way
North). Follow Charles Street north one mile to Baltimore's
Washington Monument. At the monument, turn left on Monument Street
(also known as Mt. Vernon Place). Follow one block to Cathedral
Street and turn left. Go one short block across the square. The
Engineering Society will be on your left. The Peabody Court Hotel
is immediately on your right, facing the Washington Monument.

From the north:

Take 83 south and exit on Guilford Ave. Turn right on to Madison St.
and take it west, crossing Charles St. and then left to Cathedral
St. Then directions are as above.

Additional directions, details, and a Google Maps link are here:

http://www.esb.org/about_directions.php .

Parking:

Valet parking is available for $10 (with ESB validation) at the
Peabody Court Hotel across Cathedral St. or in the Walters Art
Museum lot for $8 at Cathedral and Centre St.

Thanks for your attention,

The BACM Executive Committee
Craig Holcomb, Chair
Bill Edelstein, Vice Chair
Roy Albin, Secretary
Jason Pyeron, Treasurer
Emil Volcheck, Past Chair