[Voterescue] Sequoia Voting Systems Threatens Princeton Computer Scientists

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http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5814

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 3/17/2008 6:36PM

EXCLUSIVE: Sequoia Voting Systems Threatens Princeton Computer  
Scientists with Legal Action if they Carry Out NJ Commissioned  
Analysis of the Company's Touch-Screen Voting Machines

VP Edwin Smith Warns Scientists, in Email Obtained by The BRAD BLOG,  
of Plans to Take 'Appropriate Steps to Protect Against Publication of  
Software, Its Behavior or Reports Regarding Same'

ALSO: Company Website of One of Nation's Largest Voting Machine  
Vendors Refers to 'Democrat' [sic] Party in Explanation for Recent  
Primary Election Failure...
-- Brad Friedman

Sequoia Voting Systems has sent a legal threat to Princeton  
University computer science professors Ed Felten and Andrew Appel  
warning them of legal action should they proceed with an analysis of  
New Jersey's touch-screen voting machines as unanimously recommended  
last week by an association representing election clerks across the  
state.

In a terse email sent last Friday, obtained today by The BRAD BLOG,  
Sequoia's Edwin Smith, Vice-President of Compliance/Quality/ 
Certification, warns the university academics that the company has  
"retained counsel to stop any infringement of our intellectual  
properties, including any non-compliant analysis."

"We will also take appropriate steps to protect against any  
publication of Sequoia software, its behavior, reports regarding same  
or any other infringement of our intellectual property," Smith  
threatens.

The email from Smith to Felten and Appel is posted in full at the end  
of this article. Felten has confirmed its authenticity late this  
afternoon.

The call by state election officials for the independent study of  
Sequoia's AVC Advantage touch-screen machines comes in the wake of a  
recent finding that the systems mistallied voter turnout totals  
across at least six different counties in New Jersey's February 5th  
Presidential Primary Election. During a post-election canvass, it was  
found that the number of voters for each party, as reported by the  
internal printouts on the electronic voting machines, failed to match  
totals on the internal memory cards inside the same systems in a  
number of instances across the state.

Sequoia's explanation for the problem, essentially blaming voters and  
poll workers for pushing a complicated series of buttons, was found  
lacking by the state election clerks.

The discovery of mistallies followed on previous embarrassment for  
Sequoia and New Jersey when several machines failed to boot up at all  
on the morning of the Super Tuesday Election, causing a 45-minute  
delay before NJ's Governor John Corzine before he was finally able to  
cast a vote at his polling place in Hoboken.

Sequoia has good reason to be concerned about what may come of an  
analysis by professors Felten and/or Appel. Both of them have  
previously detailed major voting machine security flaws, and the  
ability to easily hack into such systems made by both Sequoia and  
Diebold Election Systems...

Hacking "Advantage" Goes to Computer Scientists

Sequoia's AVC Advantage system --- previously described on the  
company's website as "tamperproof" --- is not likely to withstand  
independent scrutiny by skilled computer scientists such as Felten or  
Appel. Though it wouldn't be the first time the company's products,  
or those by the other voting machine companies, failed miserable when  
they were finally allowed to be probed by independent parties.


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http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5814