The Hugo Chavez Test

There's been much ado over whether electronic voting machine manufacturer Sequoia Voting Systems has ties to Venezualan President and Chief Bush-Baiter Hugo Chavez, sparking the company to ask a federal agency to investigate and clear its name.

Of course it's a little funny to see the right treading on the left's territory (dark forces stealing elections), but as Adam Shostack points out, there's a good lesson to be learned here: Voting machines should be so transparent that it doesn't matter whether the code was actually written by Chavez or his good buddy, Fidel Castro.

If we had voting systems that were trustworthy, transparent and understood by those operating them, then we could buy our voting machines from Hugo Chavez or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and not have to worry a lot about it. We do not, and cannot. We have transitioned from paper ballots and their understood problems into a brave new world of computerized and untrustworthy voting systems, and we are poorer for it.

I propose we call this the Hugo Chavez test, and see how all new voting technology fares under the test. We could realistically consider buying paper ballots, punch cards, or other verifiable voting technologies from the Chavez government, and be reasonably confident in our ability to test them and be sure we were getting what we specified. (I'm confident someone will point out an exceptionally clever trick, so read the comments.) I'm also confident that we can't say the same of any computerized system on the market today. Our ability to audit them is simply too lacking, and the skills to do so too rare.

That's exactly right.

I've stayed away from voting machine stories, preferring to leave them in the capable hands of folks like Farhad Manjoo and Kim Zetter. Speaking of Zetter and voting machines, check her Wired News story from yesterday on how likely next week's elections will be marred by errors. I just want to know if Chavez will choose to be a Senator from Virginia or if he'd prefer Dianne Fienstein's seat.

Photo blmurch