I got a great and deceptively simple question recently: what guidelines should be used for testing of voting machines?

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It never ceases to amaze me how often, and in what varied circumstances, I meet people who are not only quite clued in about election technology reform, but also surprising aware of some of the devils that lurk in the details. Today’s devil: "field validation" of voting devices, or: if I went to vote in a precinct, and someone told me I was about to vote on the wonderful new trustworthy voting system that I had heard about, how would I know that that was the device I was about to use?

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There’s a pretty regular stream of news about activities in the office of California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, de-certifying or re-certifying voting systems following the results of the state’s top-to-bottom review. Rather than making an up to the minute comment, I thought it would be useful to re-visit what I think is one of the more notable past scenes in the on-going drama.

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Rocket Science.
It doesn’t take rocket science to understand the essentials of systems
integrity. But, wait a minute! It does take rocket science to properly make
high integrity systems.

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Certification. Its hot news. Today its Colorado. Just check out how much coverage the Colorado’s State Secretary received in declaring three out of four of the state’s digital voting equipment vendors’ products unfit for service, or at least unreliable, and decertifying their use.

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