EVN 2019 – Moving the Needle: Securing and Auditing Our Elections

The Election Verification Network 2019 Annual Conference will be held March 13-15 in Washington DC at George Washington University.

Join us for a stimulating and timely conference that will also feature keynote speeches on the top election security issues. Attendance at EVN 2019 is by invitation. Please contact us for more information.

Session topics will include: Federal legislation on election security, election integrity litigation in the states, cyber infrastructure and election security, audit experiences- 2018, VVSG and standards, second generation election technology.

The conference will be held Thursday March 14 – Friday, March 15 8:30am to 5:30pm at the George Washington University  School of Engineering and Applied Science,  800 22nd Street, NW,  Washington, DC 20052 (Google Maps)

Welcome reception: Wednesday March 13 at 5pm at the Churchill Hotel Kalorama Room, 914 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC (Google Maps).

Agenda

This program may be subject to change
Download the program agenda (Word)
List of attendees with bios (PDF)

The entire program will be live-streamed and recorded.
Join the live stream starting at 8:15am March 14

Wednesday, March 13

5pm – 7pm   Welcome Reception (at the Churchill Hotel, open to all conference registrants)

Thursday, March 14

7:45am Check-in and Breakfast

8:15am Welcome and Introductions
Liz Howard, The Brennan Center for Justice
Poorvi Vora, George Washington University

8:30am Opening Remarks by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon
Introduced by Greg Miller, Open Source Election Technology (OSET) Institute
Senator Wyden’s biography (PDF)

9:00am Break

9:15am Remarks by David Sanger, National Security Correspondent, The New York Times and author of “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age.”
Introduced by Poorvi Vora, George Washington University
David Sanger’s biography (PDF)

10:00am Break

10:15am Federal Legislation on Election Security
Election security continues to garner much attention in the 116th Congress. Staff for the lawmakers leading the way on federal election security reform will discuss the aims and options key lawmakers are weighing as they try to improve election security through federal legislation.
Moderator: Susan Greenhalgh, National Election Defense Coalition
Panelists: Jacob Barton, Senate Intelligence Committee (majority); Moira Bergen, House Homeland Security Committee (majority); Lindsey Kerr, Senate Rules Committee (minority)

11:30am Break

11:45am Election Integrity Litigation in the States
What’s at stake nationally for election integrity in the litigation pending in Georgia and South Carolina, and why every EVNer will want to follow it closely. 
Moderator: Candice Hoke, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Center for
Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection
Panelists: Bruce Brown, Esq., Bruce P. Brown, Law, LLC; Max Feldman, Brennan Center for Justice; Larry Schwartztol, Protect Democracy

1:00pm Lunch
Announcement by Joe Kiniry and Dan Zimmerman, Galois and Free & Fair

1:45pm Usability and Voter Verification
Security often comes with a usability price. What are the issues arising from usability and accessibility that are pertinent to the ability of voters to verify their paper records?
Moderator: Matt Bernhard, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Panelists: Josh Benaloh, Microsoft Research; Michelle Bishop, National Disability Rights Network; J. Alex Halderman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

3:00pm Break

3:15pm Next Generation Voting Systems
This panel will discuss the current landscape of voting technology, discussing aspects of the security, accessibility, and usability of newer systems. The goal is to understand how recommendations made by the verifiable election community impact voting technology in practice, so we can better tailor our security and verifiability recommendations to make them more likely to be adopted and meaningfully deployed in practice. 
Moderator: Matt Bernhard, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Panelists: Tina Barton, City of Rochester Hills, MI; Dana DeBeauvoir, Travis County, TX;
Eddie Perez, Open Source Election Technology (OSET) Institute

4:30pm Break

4:45pm Annual EVN Awards
Chairperson: Susannah Goodman, Common Cause
Committee: Eddie Hailes, Advancement Project; Mark Lindeman, Verified Voting;
Noel Runyan, Personal Data Systems; Poorvi Vora, George Washington University
Award descriptions
Previous award winners

2019 award winners

• Public Service for Improved Elections Award
  Neal Kelley
• John Gideon Memorial Election Advocacy Award
  Neal McBurnett
• Innovation Award
  Mayuri Sridhar and Kellie Ottoboni
• Election Integrity Research Excellence Award
  Rebecca Mercuri
• Journalism Award
  Eric Geller
• Full Tilt Advocacy Achievement Award
  Luther Weeks
• Long-Term Contributor Award
  Susan Dzieduszcka-Suinat

5:45pm Buffet Dinner

8:00pm Bus departs from George Washington University SEAS to The Churchill Hotel

Friday, March 15

8:15am Check-in and Continental Breakfast

8:45am Announcements

9:00am Opening Keynote – U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, Maryland 8th Congressional District
Election Vendor Security Act
Introduced by Senator William C. Smith, Jr., MD
Representative Raskin’s biography (PDF)

9:45am Break

10:00am Keynote- Suzanne Spaulding, Senior Adviser for Homeland Security and Director of the Defending Democratic Institutions Project, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Introduced by Poorvi Vora, George Washington University
Suzanne Spaulding’s biography (PDF)

10:30am Break

10:45am The Role of the Election Assistance Commission in Election Integrity
Moderator: Liz Howard, The Brennan Center for Justice
Panelists: EAC Commissioner Thomas Hicks; EAC Commissioner Benjamin Hovland; EAC Commissioner Donald Palmer
EAC slides

11:30am Break

11:45am VVSG Standards and Certification
This panel will discuss the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG), Common Data Formats (CDF’s), and other standards for election systems and data, as well as federal and state certification for standards compliance.
Moderator: John McCarthy, Verified Voting
Panelists: Joe Kiniry, Free & Fair and Galois; Sindhu Ramachandran, Pennsylvania Dept. of State; John Wack, NIST

12:45 pm Lunch

1:25pm Milestones in Post-Election Tabulation Audits
In the last year, several states broke new ground in post-election auditing — more than fit on one panel! We’ll hear about risk-limiting audit pilots in Virginia, Michigan, and Rhode Island, plus Wisconsin’s first-ever pre-certification audit. What was learned, and how can we build on the progress?
Moderator: Mark Lindeman, Verified Voting
Panelists: Brenda Cabrera, City of Fairfax, VA; Karen McKim, Wisconsin Election Integrity;
Miguel Nunez, Rhode Island Board of Elections; Ronald L. Rivest, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Karen McKim’s slides

2:25pm Break

2:35pm Voter Registration Databases and the Security of Voter Registration
US voter registration systems have been actively targeted by foreign adversaries in recent elections. This panel explores threats related to voter registration systems and defensive controls that can be used to strengthen VRDB security.
Moderator: Josh Franklin, Outstack Technologies
Panelists: Dr. Beata Martin-Rozumilowicz, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES); John Dziurlaj, Turnout LLC
Josh Franklin’s slides
John Dziurlaj’s slides
Dr. Martin-Rozumilowicz’ slides

3:35pm Break

3:45pm Partnerships and Progress
This panel will discuss the progress made in the effort to make our elections more secure and the various partnerships between election security experts and advocates, election officials and national security officials.
Moderator: Doug Kellner, New York State Board of Elections
Panelists: Monica Childers; Matt Masterson, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Maurice Turner, Center for Democracy and Technology

5:00pm Close and toast
Eddie Hailes, Jr., Advancement Project

5:45pm Bus departs for The Churchill Near Embassy Row

Travel

The Churchill Hotel near Embassy Row is the official hotel of the 2019 EVN conference and will offer rooms to attendees at the conference rate of $199 plus tax until the room block is full or Friday February 15.  Please follow this link:  EVN DC- Web Link Churchill Hotel DC or call 800-424-2464 or 201-797-2000 ask for group reservations and request the EVN Conference rate.

Our Goal: A truly secure election system