As required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is in the process of deciding how to spend the HAVA funds allocated for providing accessible voting for voters with disabilities.  The ACLU of Massachusetts (ACLUM) has joined with disability rights advocates to consider the accessibility and security issues posed by the machines under consideration:

• Diebold's TSX, and Hart InterCivic's e-Slate, both touch screen direct recording electronic voting systems (DREs), and
• ES&S AutoMark, a ballot marking device.

As part of this discussion, ACLUM received the following report from the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which evaluates the security of these electronic voting systems. We invite you to join our discussion (visit discussion archives) on Massachusetts' Electronic Voting equipment decision.

Received 15 December 2006 (PDF) (HTML)

Summary

This report contains the findings of a consultant engaged by the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to examine the security aspects of three electronic voting systems intended for use by disabled voters.

For the reasons given in detail in this report, under the administrative procedures recommended herein, all three systems are [judged] sufficiently secure for use.