17-803/17-400 Electronic Voting

Session 3: Punched-Card Systems

Michael I. Shamos, Ph.D., J.D.

Institute for Software Research International
Carnegie Mellon University
17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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 Student Projects
• Internet voting review
• Verifiability without paper
• Voter privacy assessment
• Code hiding
– Can code be hidden undetectably?
• Alternative voting systems
– ATM, lottery
• Secure software distribution
– Assure that software inside voting machines is genuine
• Voting security standards
– What should they look like?

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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 Qualification/Certification
• The Federal Election Commission (FEC) published
voluntary standards for voting systems
• Many states have made the standards mandatory
• How to test against them?
• The National Association of State Election Directors
(NASED) has authorized a small number of
Independent testing authorities to qualify voting
systems
• After qualification, most states have a certification
process to verify that the system satisfies state law

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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Qualification/Certification Problems
• The FEC standards are inadequate for software
security
• The ITAs operate in secret
– Don’t publish their testing protocols
– Don’t publish their findings, just whether a system passed
• The ITAs are paid by the vendors
• State certifications are cursory, usually not performed
by experts

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 Help America Vote Act of 2002
• Payments to states to replace paper and level
machines: $3 billion
• Establishes Election Assistance Commission
• Reforms the standards process (National Institute of
Standards and Technology)
• Provisional voting
• Statewide registration systems
• Complaint procedure

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MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
 Punch Card Voting
• Will be used by about 14% of the U.S. in 2004
• Will be used in 69 of 88 counties in Ohio (PA only
has 67 counties)
• Began in the 1960s with the IBM Porta-Punch
• By 2000 was used in 37% of the U.S., until Florida
Votomatic Punched-Card System

228

312

SOURCE: DOUG JONES

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Votomatic Punched-Card System
 Votomatic Punch-Card System

BALLOT FRAME
VOTING SETUP

VOTING BOOTH

VOTING BALLOT
STYLUS SEALS

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MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
 Punched Card (14%)
REGISTRATION
HOLES

STUB FOR
WRITE-INS CHAD

POSITIONS 4, 20, 60, 82, 117 ARE PUNCHED

NO CANDIDATE NAMES ON CARD

HOLES NOT ALWAYS RECTANGULAR

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
Punched Card (14%)

SOURCE: MICHIGAN SOS

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Votomatic Punched-Card System

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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 Issues
• Cards
• Human Factors
• Card Handling
• Readers
• Ballot Definition
• Recounts
– What constitutes a vote?

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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 Card Manufacture
• Card stock
– Humidity
• Prescored cards
– Dies: depth, location of scoring

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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 Ballot Frames
• Card registration
• Stylus
• Punch pressure

SOURCE: PETER SHEERIN

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 Ballot Frames
• Rubber backing
• Chad jams

SOURCE: PETER SHEERIN

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 Chads

SOURCE: PETER SHEERIN

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Hanging Chad

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

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 Datavote
• Uses a die to punch a clean hole
• Employed in a small
fraction of punch card
counties

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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 Human Factors
• Ballot pages
• Ballot review
• Spoiled ballot
• Overvoting
• “Butterfly ballot”
• “No butterfly ballot may be used as an official ballot in
any referendum, primary, or other election.” N.C.
Gen. Stat. §163-165.4B

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Palm Beach County “Butterfly” Ballot

SOURCE: SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

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Buchanan Vote by County (Florida, 2000)
GRAPH COURTESY OF

PROF. GREG ADAMS

CARNEGIE MELLON
&
PROF. CHRIS FASTNOW
CHATHAM COLLEGE

(PURPLE ANNOTATIONS ADDED)

LINEAR FIT WITHOUT PALM BEACH,

BROWARD, MIAMI-DADE

Pinellas (St. Petersburg-Clearwater)

Hillsborough (Tampa)

Broward (Fort Lauderdale)

Miami-Dade

Orange (Orlando)

SOURCE: PROF. GREG ADAMS

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Broward County Ballot Page

SOURCE: BROWARD COUNTY

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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Counting Punched Cards

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 Ballot “Programming”
• Inform the tabulation system of the correspondence
between punch positions and candidate names

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
 Card Readers
• Manufacturer
• Reading the card changes the card
• Chads fall out, chads are replaced
• Role of “chad teams”

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Counting Punched Cards

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

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 Recount
• When a ballot is handled, it can be changed
• The voter’s intent must be determined
• Suppose only one of four corners is detached. It is a
vote?
• Dimpled chad, pregnant chad: how to count?

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 What Constitutes a Vote?
• “Each State shall adopt uniform and
nondiscriminatory standards that define what
constitutes a vote and what will be counted as a vote
for each category of voting system used in the State.”
HAVA, 42 U.S.C. § 15481(a)(6)
• TABLE
• PENNSYLVANIA

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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FALL 2004
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MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
 Punched-Card Problems
• Can’t see whom you’re voting for
• Registration of card in ballot frame
• Must use stylus: no positive feedback on punch
• Hanging chad: chad that is partially attached to the
card
– How may corners?
– Hanging chad causes count to differ every time
• Dimple: chad that is completely attached but shows
evidence of an attempt to punch
– Dimple can turn into a vote on multiple readings

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
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MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
Q&A
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 What’s a Recount?
• Purpose: “verify” that the original tabulation was
correct
• Three kinds of recounts:
– A. Physical ballots exist: Count them again.
– B. Computer records exist: Tabulate them again.
– C. No physical ballots or computer records exist
(e.g. lever machines): Read the counters again

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
VOTING
FALL 2004
COPYRIGHT © 2004
MICHAEL I. SHAMOS
Votomatic Punched-Card System

17-803/17-400 ELECTRONIC
VOTING
FALL 2004
COPYRIGHT © 2004
MICHAEL I. SHAMOS