In the wake of a study revealing security flaws in the costly
touch-screen voting machines Maryland has agreed to buy, Gov. Robert
L. Ehrlich Jr. ordered an outside review yesterday of the electronic
system scheduled to be in place for next spring's presidential primary
election.
Science Application International Corp. of San Diego will complete
the evaluation in four weeks, delivering findings that will determine
whether Maryland moves forward with the $55.6 million purchase of new
machines for 19 counties, asks for alterations to improve accuracy or
scuttles the plan altogether.
"The governor's first and foremost concern is public confidence in
the system," said Henry Fawell, an Ehrlich spokesman. "If ensuring
public confidence means conducting an independent review, then he
believes that is the appropriate step to take."
With the analysis pending, the state's purchase of the new machines
"is not a certainty," Fawell said.
Ehrlich's order occurs less than two weeks after
Johns Hopkins University researchers concluded that the AccuVote-TS
machines built by Diebold Election Systems of McKinney, Texas, were
vulnerable to hackers, multiple votes and vote-switching.
Maryland recently agreed to buy more than 11,000 of the machines,
placing the state on the leading edge of a movement to upgrade voting
technology after the error-ridden 2000 presidential election in
Florida.
The researchers based their results on a review of the computer
code that runs the system. Diebold has countered that the study used
an outdated version of the code and did not account for real-world
safeguards that protect against abuse.
Diebold officials said yesterday that the company will cooperate
with the evaluation, which they said was the first of its kind among
the several states using the touch-screen terminals and software.
In Maryland, four counties - Allegany, Dorchester, Montgomery and
Prince George's - used the machines for last year's election, largely
without incident.
"We are confident that no problems will arise from the review,"
said Diebold spokesman Michael A. Jacobsen. "Should the third-party
review require action on our part, we are going to work closely with
the customer, in this case Maryland, to make sure their needs are
met."
While praising the quality and reputation of the California company
that will perform the evaluation, Aviel Rubin, technical director of
Hopkins' Information Security Institute, said he was troubled that
neither Diebold nor Maryland officials have contacted him or his
colleagues to talk about their findings.
"I am really surprised that they are not having SAIC talk to us.
I'm very disappointed in that," Rubin said. "No one from the state of
Maryland has talked to us."
Fawell said the California company would review the Hopkins report,
but said the researchers would not be contacted directly to keep the
evaluation as independent as possible.
He also said that Diebold has agreed to allow SAIC to review the
proprietary code for the voting system, a condition that Rubin called
important to a thorough analysis.
The Hopkins study has stoked an intense national debate over
whether electronic voting machines are secure and accurate enough to
justify expensive federal and state efforts to replace older
technology.
Some say Ehrlich should use the latest findings to pull the plug on
the state's impending investment.
"The state was a guinea pig in this whole process," said former
Del. Cheryl C. Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat who has criticized
the Glendening administration's ion of Diebold to provide the
machines.
"The [19 counties] should keep what they've got, rather than going
headlong into a new process that has yet to be successfully tested.
"Especially in bad fiscal times, $55 million in new technology that
might be flawed is irresponsible, if not obscene," Kagan said.
In Baltimore County, where chief technology officer Thomas G. Iler
was part of a state panel that raised questions about the new system,
officials have asked for the new system to be delayed. The state has
denied the request.
"The [governor's] decision underscores our stated concerns about
the newness of the technology, and the caution that needs to be taken
when applying a new technology to a critical function of government,"
Iler said yesterday.
"The governor is making a good step."
Administration and state elections board officials have shown
little willingness to delay buying the machines, saying Maryland is
required under state and federal law to upgrade its voting
technologies.
State board of elections administrator Linda Lamone has said the
Diebold machines performed well enough in the four counties last year
to justify their widespread introduction.
"We at the state board have confidence in the Diebold system," said
board chairman Gilles Burger in a statement yesterday.
"We hold the utmost value in voter integrity and security and take
credible claims of vulnerability seriously."
Maryland has an existing two-year $2.6 million contract with SAIC
to analyze software the state is buying and security associated with
it.
The review ordered by Ehrlich will not cost the state additional
money, Fawell said.
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