Despite 77 Violations Federal Testers Recommend Certification for New Diebold/Premier Voting SystemB
7/2/2008
Standards, Schmandards: Despite 77 Violations, Federal Testers Recommend Certification for New Diebold/Premier Voting System
A Concrete Example of Why the Voting System Test Standards are All Form and No Substance...
Guest blogged by John Washburn
I have been a long time critic of the federal 2002 Voting System Standards (2002 VSS) and of the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (2005 VVSG). In fact, both sets of standards are virtually worthless. There are two reasons for this. First, the requirements enumerated in the standards are, in and of themselves, much too weak for something as vital as administering an election. Second, both sets of standards have an explicit loophole that allows almost all the requirements - weak as they are - to be ignored. This second objection was first brought to my attention two years ago by Howard Stanislevic.
We now have proof that this loophole is used by the labs in order to “pass” systems that don’t meet the standards. The proof is laid out clearly in the most recent certification test report submitted to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by SysTest labs (one of the labs accredited by the EAC and the National Institute of Standards and Technology - NIST). SysTest recommended certification for the new voting system by Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold) even though the lab's findings listed 79 specific failures to meet the standards.
As you read this article, keep in mind that the standards actually allow 77 of these 79 failures to be ignored!..