EVN 2018: Elections in Sunshine

The Election Verification Network 2018 Annual Conference will be held March 14-16 in Miami, Florida at the University of Miami Law School.

Join us for a stimulating and timely conference that will also feature keynote speeches on the top election security issues. Attendance at EVN 2017 is by invitation. Please contact us for more information.

The conference will be held at the University of Miami Law School (1311 Miller Rd., D342, Coral Gables, Florida) from 8am to 5pm on Thursday, March 15 – Friday, March 16

Agenda

Wednesday, March 14

5:00 – 7:00pm  – Welcome Reception
At the Sonesta Coconut Grove, 289 McFarlane Rd, Miami in the Grove View Terrace. Open to all conference registrations. (Dinner on your own)

Thursday, March 15

8:15 am – Bus to the conference
Bus departs Sonesta Coconut Grove for the  University of Miami School of Law

8:30 am – Registration and breakfast
Alma Jennings Student lounge

9:00 am – Welcome and introductions
Mark Lindeman, Eddie Hailes, Advancement Project

9:30 am –  Keynote:  Kim Zetter, Investigative Journalist and Author
How a Single News Story Brought Down Georgia’s Election Center and Broke Its Decade-Long Grip on Elections in the State

Investigative reporter and author Kim Zetter is one of the first journalists to have delved deeply into the security of electronic voting systems, which she began covering in 2003 for Wired. She’s written more than a hundred stories on the topic and last year in the run-up to the special election in Georgia between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel, Zetter published a lengthy expose for Politico about the breach of an election center in Georgia, responsible for programming all voting machines in the state. When the news first broke in February 2017 that a hacker had breached a server belonging to the center, election officials brushed it off, saying the intruder was just a researcher who found a vulnerability in their web site. It took three months of reporting to discover the incident was much more serious than officials let on. Zetter will discuss how she investigated the story “Will The Georgia Special Election Get Hacked?” – and talk about its aftermath.

Break –  Alma Jennings Student Lounge

10:30am  – Risk Limiting Audits- The Colorado Story
Moderator: Mark Lindeman, Political Scientist
Panelists:  Hillary Hall, Boulder County, Neal McBurnett, ElectionAudits, Jennifer Morrell, Arapahoe County, Dwight Shellman, Colorado Department of State (invited)

Come hear from the election officials and implementers that led Colorado to the forefront of election auditing in the US, by pulling off the first coordinated set of risk-limiting audits across an entire state. The panel has experience over the last decade in most of the key advancements. What were the challenges and results, what more can we learn, and how can others build on the procedures and open source software?

12:00pm – EVN Annual Awards Ceremony
Susannah Goodman, Common Cause

Lunch in the Alma Jennings Student Lounge

1:30pm –  The Future of Post-Election Audits
Moderator– John McCarthy, Verified Voting
Panelists-  Kammi Foote, Inyo County, Mark Lindeman, Political Scientist, Marian Schneider, Verified Voting

What is next for post-election audits? Audit legislation, algorithms and implementation are all in flux. Actively involved experts will tell us about what to expect in legislation, algorithms and implementation.
Room F209

Break –  Alma Jennings Student Lounge

3:15pm –  The Business of Voting
Moderator:  Lynn Garland
Panelists: Matthew Caulfield, Wharton School of Business, Monica Childers, Democracy Works, Commissioner Thomas Hicks, Chairman, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Eric Letsinger, Quantified Ventures

Matthew Caulfield will describe the election technology industry’s market structure and problems based on the Wharton report, “The Business of Voting.” The panelists will discuss potential solutions affecting the market in order to enable innovation and improve quality. These solutions include buyer coalitions, social impact bonds for financing, certification reforms, and open source technology.

5:15pm –  Bus departs for Sonesta Coconut Grove

Dinner on your own

Friday, March 16

8:15am  –  Bus to the conference
Bus departs Sonesta Coconut Grove for the  University of Miami School of Law 1311 Miller Rd., D342, Coral Gables, Florida

8:30am  –  Registration and Breakfast
Alma Jennings Student Lounge

9:00am  –  Announcements
Room F209

9:15am – Keynote-  Aleksander Essex, Western University
Harm reduction for online voting: If you’re going to do it, at least do this…

When deciding whether to adopt online voting, cybersecurity experts have consistently advocated an abstinence based approach. Although abstinence remains the most effective means of protecting elections, in actual practice, intentions to abstain from online voting often fail. For example, in 2014, 25% of Ontario municipalities engaged in online voting and that number is expected to increase in the upcoming 2018 Ontario municipal election. This suggests a policy advocating in-person voting has had limited effect, and that preventing online voting may not be realistic in all jurisdictions. Taking a cue from the public health concept of harm reduction, we examine several cybersecurity practices designed to lessen the social and democratic risks associated with deploying online voting.

Break –  Alma Jennings Student Lounge

10:00am –  Blockchain Voting: A panacea or a red herring?
Josh Benaloh, Microsoft Research

No matter the problem, blockchains seem to be the answer — especially for voting. Right?  This session will describe what blockchains are, how they work, and why they don’t belong in the arena of public elections.

Break –  Alma Jennings Student Lounge

 11:00am – VVSG Status- Updates on VVSG 2.0
Panelists:  Josh Franklin, NIST, Gema Howell, NIST

The Election Assistance Commission and National Institute of Standards and Technology have been working to produce version 2 of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG 2.0).  The methodology represents and significant departure from past efforts, and the process is well underway.  This session will provide an update on where things stand with VVSG 2.0 and what to expect in the coming months as the process moves towards adoption of the new standard.

12:00 pm   – Lunch on your own

Improving Election Cybersecurity for 2018 and beyond: 3 panels

1:30pm  – 1.  Election Cybersecurity: Current Threats & Using the Cyber Risk Assessment
Moderator:  Stafford Ward, U.S. Vote Foundation
Panelists:  Ron Bandes, Vote Allegheny, Rich DeMillo, Georgia Tech, Candice Hoke, Cleveland State University

This initial panel will provide an introduction to cybersecurity issues for elections before exploring a practical approach/tool that can effectively organize the defensive preparation. Rich DeMillo will review the threat environment for elections in 2018, and describe the technical & operational security problems election offices face in 2018. Candice Hoke and Ron Bandes what a cyber risk assessment can contribute to improving election security, roles for security consultants, how the cyber risk assessment can lead toward achieving resilience of election offices.

2:35pm  – 2.  Election Officials’ Cybersecurity Concerns
Moderator:  Maggie MacAlpine, Nordic Innovations
Panelists:  Doug Kellner, NY State Board of Elections, Conway Belangia, Greenville County, (invited) and Kammi Foote, Inyo County

Election officials at both the State and local levels discuss their views as to security readiness, given the threat landscape and their resources, and their ideas for how advocates & security experts/consultants can help them improve EI & cybersecurity readiness for the 2018 & 2020 election cycles.

3:15pm  –  3. “Critical Infrastructure” Designation for Election Operations: Risks, Mitigations, & Import for 2018
Moderator:  Susannah Goodman, Common Cause
Panelists: Harri Hursti, Nordic Innovation Labs, Alex Haldeman, University of Michigan, additional panelists to be announced

The federal role in election cybersecurity has yet to be defined clearly, whether under the “critical infrastructure” designation or other powers.  This panel will consider what the federal role is planned to be (to the degree it is known) and should be in protecting 2018 elections; plus, if time permits, whether Federal DHS/FBI activities might generate any new risks to our largely decentralized election system and what mitigations for these risks exist or can be crafted.                                                                                                

3:50pm – Close and toast
Eddie Hailes

4:45pm-  Bus Departs for Sonesta Coconut Grove