Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC)
Security and Transparency Subcommittee (STS) Teleconference *
July 24, 2007, 10:30 a.m.
Draft Minutes

Agenda

1) Administrative Updates
2) Discussion of Independent Voter Verifiable Record (IVVR) Requirements
3) Other items

Attendees: Alexia Scott-Morrison, Alicia Clay, Allan Eustis, Andrew Regensheid, Barbara Guttman, Commissioner Davidson (EAC), David Wagner, Helen Purcell, John Wack, Mat Masterson (EAC), Nelson Hastings, Quynh Dang, Ron Rivest, Sharon Laskowski, Wendy Havens, David Wagner

Administrative Updates (Allan Eustis):

  • Allan forwarded to STS subcommittee a website containing the results from the NJ Institute of Technology's series of extensive tests on printers for Sequoia and Avante http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/reports-njit.html . (The website also contains response from Sequoia.) The tests shows issues with VVPAT and other security problems - interesting read for STS members.

Independent Voter Verifiable Record (IVVR) Requirements (Barbara Guttman):

Barbara discussed the changes that had been made to the IVVR section, which included upgrading the general VVPR requirements to the general IVVR requirements.

  • The PCOS and VVPAT sections were reviewed and updated to contain necessary changes for the IVVR.
  • A requirement was added that "No Codebook Required to Interpret IVVR" -- The human-readable information on the IVVR SHALL NOT require additional information, such as a codebook, lookup table, or other information, to unambiguously determine the cast vote.
  • The requirement on tamper evidence was reworded for clarification.
  • The public format shall not have any kind of intellectual property restrictions.
  • Independent voter records verification - records that voters can verify without software or other technology with the exception of assistive technology.

Suggested word changes were made to section 1.4.1 to clarify that if a vote is not accepted, it is not "recast". Changes were also suggested to section 1.4.4.D.1 to add that certain requirements are specified and governed by state law. Barbara and Nelson will reword these sections.

Ron Rivest expressed concerns over section 1.4.J.1 (VVPR Accepted or Rejected for Multiple Physical Media). Ron felt that it was necessary to know if a voter only submitted page 1 or a vote, or page 2 of a vote, or both pages. He felt this was necessary for auditing to make sure that no one's pages were not submitted unintentionally. After discussion it was decided that this was handled in the voting procedures.

Ron also expressed concern over 1.4.10.A.3 (Minimum Size of Batches). The batching size was added as a way to help when conducting an audit and making more manageable stacks. The consensus of STS was to remove the requirement 1.4.10.A (Scanner Optional Batching Support) and its sub requirements.

Alexia expressed concerns over 1.4.5.D (Paper Roll CVRs on a Single Roll) that the discussion point may be redundant. Barbara to review and reword. Section 1.4.7 (Paper-Roll VVPAT Privacy and Audit-Support Requirements) will also be reworded to something such as "these requirements address threats…"

Other:

  • Alexia brought up the confusion between the terms "ballot configuration" versus "ballot style". Style was defined as physical layout and presentation and configuration was defined as the content information. Since there were still concerns over the definition, it will be discussed among Commissioner Davidson, John Wack, and David Flater. [NOTE: Standards Board and others need to understand the definitions so that they understand the material they are reviewing.]
  • Next STS subcommittee is scheduled for August 7, 2007. Presentation materials will be discussed.

[* Pursuant to the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the TGDC is charged with directing NIST in performing voting systems research so that the TGDC can fulfill its role of recommending technical standards for voting equipment to the EAC. This teleconference served the purposes of the STS subcommittee of the TGDC to direct NIST staff and coordinate voting-related research relevant to the VVSG 2007. Discussions on this telecon are preliminary and do not necessarily reflect the views of NIST or the TGDC.]



Teleconferences from 2004, 2005, 2006 and upcoming in 2006.

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