IP: 6 months ago is nothing

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 10:08:12 -0500 (EST)
>From: Rebecca Mercuri <mercuri@gradient.cis.upenn.edu>
>To: egerck@safevote.com, farber@cis.upenn.edu
>Subject: 6 months ago is nothing
>Cc: mercuri@gradient.cis.upenn.edu, neumann@csl.sri.com
>
>Dave and Ed --
>
>Peter Neumann forwarded me the communication that Ed sent to Dave
>about problems in Florida being pointed out 6 months ago by The Bell.
>I should point out that these problems were pointed out 12 YEARS ago
>(and numerous times since) by folks like Roy Saltman who wrote an
>entire treatise on the subject back in 1988 for NIST, and Ronnie Dugger
>who wrote a number of extensive articles, one covering the 1988 Senate
>Election in Florida. I had personally been involved with the 1993
>contested mayoral race in St. Petersburg FL where other types of
>problems occurred.
>
>I realize that the Bell is new and ambitious, and it is certainly good
>that they want to spread the word about these problems, but to take
>credit for being early on the scene is like Gore saying he invented
>the Internet.
>
>What troubles me even MORE than the credit-taking, is this chilling
>comment at the end of Ed's note: "we should in fact be looking
> >to Internet voting systems in order to try to reduce those faults and
> >thus provide for more security than what is available today ­ not
> >less security."
>
>The point is that Internet systems indeed DO promise FAR LESS in the
>way of auditability (recounts) and anonymity (privacy) than do the
>paper and other manual systems presently in place.  To promote the
>belief that Internet voting, in any way provides a SAFE VOTE, is
>wholly erroneous.
>
>Rebecca Mercuri
>mercuri@acm.org
>
>P.S. Dave, if you forwarded Ed's note to your group, you may want to
>forward my reply as well. Also, I've placed a link on my web page
>with Electronic Voting information (the thesis will eventually go there
>too). The page can be accessed directly via:
>www.seas.upenn.edu/~mercuri/evote.html