Seals on NJ voting machines, as of 2011

Part of a multipart series starting here.

During the NJ voting-machines trial, plaintiffs’ expert witness Roger Johnston testified that the State’s attempt to secure its AVC Advantage voting machines was completely ineffective: the seals were ill-chosen, the all-important seal use protocol was entirely missing, and anyway the physical design of this voting machine makes it practically impossible to secure using seals.

Of course, the plaintiffs’ case covered many things other than security seals. And even if the seals could work perfectly, how could citizens know that fraudulent vote-miscounting software hadn’t been perfectly sealed into the voting machine?

Still, it was evident from Judge Linda Feinberg’s ruling, in her Opinion of February 2010, that she took very seriously Dr. Johnston’s testimony about the importance of a seal use protocol. She ordered,

4. SEALS AND SEAL-USE PROTOCOLS (REQUIRED)

For a system of tamper-evident seals to provide effective protection seals must be consistently installed, they must be truly tamper-evident, and they must be consistently inspected. While the new seals proposed by the State will provide enhanced security and protection against intruders, it is critical for the State to develop a seal protocol, in writing, and to provide appropriate training for individuals charged with seal inspection. Without a seal-use protocol, use of tamper-evident seals significantly reduces their effectiveness.

The court directs the State to develop a seal-use protocol. This shall include a training curriculum and standardized procedures for the recording of serial numbers and maintenance of appropriate serial number records.

(With regard to other issues, she ordered improvements to the security of computers used to prepare ballot definitions and aggregate vote totals; criminal background checks for workers who maintain and transport voting machines; better security for voting machines when they are stored at polling places before elections; that election computers not be connected to the Internet; and better training for election workers in “protocols for the chain of custody and maintenance of election records.”)

Judge Feinberg gave the State until July 2010 to come up with a seal use protocol. The State missed this deadline, but upon being reminded of the deadline, they submitted to the Court some woefully inadequate sketches for such a protocol. The Court rejected these sketches, and told them to come up with a real protocol. In September 2010 they tried again with a lengthier document that was still short on specifics, and the Court again found this inadequate. In October 2010 they tried again, asking for another 12-month extension, which the judge granted. In addition they proposed some new seal protocols, but asked the Court not to show them to Plaintiffs’ experts–which is most unusual in the tradition of Anglo-American law, where the Court is supposed to hear from both sides before a finding of fact. By March 2011, Judge Feinberg has not yet decided whether the State has a seal use protocol in compliance with her Order.

I’ve been observing the New Jersey Division of Elections quite closely over the past few years, as this litigation has dragged on. In some things they do a pretty good job: they are competent at voter registration, and they do maintain enough polling places so that the lines don’t get long—and these are basics of election administration that we should not take for granted. But with regard to the security of their voting machines, they just don’t get it. These direct-recording electronic voting machines are inherently insecure, and in the period 2008-2010 they have applied no fewer than six different ad-hoc “patches” to try to secure these machines: four different seal regimes, followed by three different documents claiming to be seal use protocols.

Is the New Jersey Division of Elections deliberately stalling, preserving insecure elections by dragging this case out, always proposing too little, too late and always requesting another extension? Or do they just not care, so through their lack of attention they always propose too little, too late and always request another extension? Even if the Division of Elections could come up with a seal use protocol that the Court would accept, how could we believe that these Keystone Kops could have the follow-through, the “security culture”, to execute such a protocol in the decades to come?

These voting machines are inherently insecure. The State claims they could be made secure with good seals. That’s not true: even with perfect seals and a perfectly executed seal-use protocol, there is the danger of locking fraudulent software securely into the voting machine! But even on its own flawed terms–trying to solve the problem with seals insead of with an inherently auditable technology–the State is failing to execute.