Expert on e-voting security problems to speak at Rice

DATE: Feb. 19, 2004
CONTACT: Jade Boyd
PHONE: (713) 348-6778
EMAIL: jadeboyd@rice.edu

EXPERT
ON E-VOTING SECURITY PROBLEMS TO SPEAK AT RICE
Stanford Computer Scientist David Dill to Call for Accountable Electronic
Voting Systems

Democracy
rests on the public accepting the results of elections. But touch-screen
voting machines — like those used in Harris County — record
votes electronically, making it impossible for voters to verify that
their votes were recorded correctly.

In a Feb.
25 lecture at Rice University, noted computer scientist and security
expert David Dill of Stanford University will explain why he believes
touch-screen voting machines lack accountability and undermine public
trust in democracy. Dill’s lecture, titled "The battle for
accountable voting systems," is slated for 4 p.m. in McMurtry
Auditorium in Duncan Hall. Admission is free.

Dill is leading
a growing number of computer security experts who are calling for
new federal regulations for computerized voting systems. He is the
founder of the grassroots movement VerifiedVoting.org and he is the
author of the "Resolution on Electronic Voting." The resolution
states that every voting system should have a "voter verifiable
audit trail," which is a permanent record of the vote that can
be checked for accuracy by the voter, and which is saved for a recount
if it is required. Many
computer technologists, political scientists, lawyers and others have
endorsed the resolution.

Dill’s
lecture is the first in Rice’s new "Technology, Society
and Public Policy" Lecture Series, which focuses on social, political,
and legal issues that have emerged from the information revolution.

"The
topic of e-voting is a prime example of the intersection of information
technology and public policy," said Moshe Vardi, director of
Rice’s Computer and Information Technology Insitute, which is
co-sponsoring the lecture. "With the Texas primary vote scheduled
for March 9, it is the perfect topic for the inaugural lecture on
Technology, Society and Public Policy."

Dill is professor
of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford. His primary
research interests relate to the theory and application of formal
verification techniques to system designs, including hardware, protocols,
and software. Dill has served on the California Secretary of State’s
Ad Hoc Committee on Touch Screen Voting, and he is a member of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ P1583 voting
standards committee and of the Citizen’s Oversight Committee for Santa
Clara County, California’s Direct Record Electronic voting system.

Immediately
following Dill’s lecture, a panel of experts will comment on
security challenges in electronic voting. The panel will include Texas
State Representative Scott Hochberg; Bill Stotesbery, vice president
of marketing for Hart Intercivic, the company that provides Harris
County’s electronic voting machines; Adina Levin, Electronic Frontier
Foundation, Austin; Bob Stein, dean of social sciences and the Lena
Gohlman Fox Professor of Political Science at Rice; Dan Wallach, assistant
professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering
at Rice.

Information
technology already touches most aspects of our daily lives; it has
transformed workplaces, classrooms, and homes, and changed the way
we learn, communicate, entertain, and govern. Increasingly, however,
the transforming power of ubiquitous computing, networking, and data
is impacting our notion of individual rights, civil liberties, social
problems, national security, and social responsibility.

The new lecture
series aims to highlight the challenges we face as our cyber-society
matures, with an eye toward issues related to impact, ownership, use,
control, and management of information and information technology
in society. The series is sponsored by the Computer and Information
Technology Institute (CITI), the James A. Baker III Institute for
Public Policy and the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

# # #