Privacy that is Assured Through Transparency

1
Privacy that is Assured Through Transparency

• Lillie Coney
• National Committee for Voting Integrity
• Washington, DC

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Privacy and Public Elections

• Voter Privacy
• Fighting Fraud Voter Intimidation
• Secret Ballots
• Voting Compartment Spacing
• Laws outlawing Vote Buying and Voter Coercion
• Changes in Poll Place Practices

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Elections and Privacy

• Voter Registration
• Voters Actions
• Bumper Stickers
• Yard Signs
• Casting a Vote
• Public Information
• Voters who voted
• Totals for the Smallest Political Subdivision

4
So Why the Fuss About Privacy?

• Efficacy and legitimacy of Government
• Peaceful transition of power
• Remove obstacles to political participation
• Discourage aberrant political activity

5
Election Privacy is Still an Issue

• Lynne Gobbell an employee of Enviromate was fired
  because she placed a Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker
  on her car (The Providence Journal 9/19/04 Pg.
  E-09)
• In Wisconsin 30 of 94 vehicles intended for use
  on Election Day by the Bush-Cheney re-election
  effort had their tires slashed (Chicago Tribune
  11/3/04 Pg. 16)

6
Transparency and Elections

• Good Government Efforts by Citizens
• Clean Up Government
• End Corruption
• Restore Confidence in Elections
• Ensure direct elections

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Transparency is not...

• Finding agreement
• Seeking approval
• Getting Conscienses
• An admission of guilt

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Problems Brewing Over Transparency

• When more effort is placed on scripting than
  reporting events
• Technical language that limit communication
• When it is not a state of mind supported by
  policy and implementation procedures
• The Internet makes transparency much easier and
  privacy much harder

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Transparency and Voting Technology

• Have it in mind from the start of RD
• Finding the solution is hard, but convincing
  non-technologists of its validity and value is
  much harder
• If you can explain it to a notice without making
  them feel put out or put down then you have
  achieved the goal of transparency

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What are the Challenges Today?

• Technology complicates the goal of transparency
• Technologists communicate well with other
  technologists
• Election officials communicate well with other
  election officials
• Voting rights advocates communicate well with
  other voting rights advocates
• How do they speak with each other?

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Nexus of Privacy and Transparency

• Voting is a private matter with public import
• Constituencies of public elections must have buy
  into the process
• Trust that voters must have to engage the process
  means they must trust the message and the
  messengers
• Technology challenges transparency

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The Answer is Mutuality

• Sympathy
• Empathy
• Support
• Affinity

13
Sympathy

• Election Officials have the hard job they must
  conduct elections with the hand they have been
  dealt.
• Voting Rights Advocates have recognized the
  imperfections of the election process with little
  attention or assistance.

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Empathy

• Not all Election officials share the same
  perspectives
• Not all voting rights organizations have the same
  view of voting technology
• How to create common ground to enter into a
  dialogue that will help when it is time to
  advance beta tests, research efforts and

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Support

• How can you help?
• Election Officials
• Voting Rights Advocates
• Policy Makers
• Candidates
• Voters
• Media

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Affinity

• We all want good elections
• We may not all do everything extremely well, but
  the best effort should be assumed to be the case.
• Finding the resources within the community to
  bridge communication gaps is essential.

17
Some States are Outsourcing

• Accenture Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado,
  Wisconsin and Wyoming
• Arkansas, Nebraska New Mexico have selected
  voting equipment manufacturers

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The Only Game in Town

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission AKA EAC
• First office opened in April 2004, with a budget
  of 1.5 million
• Budget of over 3 Billion to give to states
• No authority to enforce voting rules that they
  determine may be necessary

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Where are the Technologists?

• Doing research
• Attending events
• Writing papers
• Doing lectures

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Who are you speaking to?

• Other Technologists
• Election Officials
• Media
• Policy Makers
• Elected Officials

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Who is missing?

• Voting Rights Advocates
• Civil Rights Advocates

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National Committee for Voting Integrity

• http//www.votingintegrity.org/
• Lillie Coney
• Associate Director
• Electronic Privacy information Center
• http//www.epic.org/