June 21, 2017 Dear Member of Congress: Faith in American democracy rests on the integrity of our elections. So it stands to reason that lawmakers and administrators from both political parties should prioritize efforts to minimize election security risks. While there has been encouraging progress to improve election security in recent years, too many polling stations across the nation are still equipped with electronic machines that do not produce voter-verified paper ballots. Many jurisdictions are also inadequately prepared to deal with rising cybersecurity risks. We are writing to you as members of the computer science and cybersecurity communities, together with statisticians and election auditing experts, to convey our concern about these and other vulnerabilities in our voting system and to urge you to take the following simple, straightforward, and costeffective actions to set meaningful standards to protect American elections. We represent both major political parties, independents, and a range of academic institutions and private sector organizations, but we are united in our belief that the United States, the world’s oldest representative democracy, needs prompt action to ensure prudent elections security standards. Specifically, we recommend action to accomplish the following objectives: 1. Establish voter-verified paper ballots as the official record of voter intent. · Phase out the use of voting technologies such as paperless Direct Recording Electronic voting machines that do not provide a voter-verified paper ballot. 2. Safeguard against internet-related security vulnerabilities and assure the ability to detect attacks. · Create firewalls (software barriers) between internet and all voter registration, vote-tabulating machines, ballot delivery, and election management systems. Require layered backup systems to ensure that intrusions and corruption of the databases can be detected and corrected. · Review and document compliance with the recommendations and checklists prepared by the US Department of Homeland Security for security, penetration testing, network scanning, and detection and management of potential cyber-attacks. Review and track FBI security alerts. · Ensure that voting systems and information technology that supports voting systems have the latest security patches, and that those patches have been provided from trusted sources on trusted media. Limit physical access and regularly audit sensitive and critical election systems. · Discourage voters from voting online in any form—via web, email or fax— even in states where it is legal. Inform voters that electronically submitted ballots can be modified, copied, rerouted or simply deleted during transmission. 3. Require robust statistical post-election audits before certification of final results in federal elections. · Compare random samples of voting system totals to hand counts of the votes on the corresponding paper ballots. · Audit in a way that has a large chance of detecting and correcting any incorrect electoral outcomes, whatever their cause. · Recruit technical experts to assist with tests and audits. Resources for finding experts, many of whom may provide pro bono services, include the Election Verification Network, professional societies such as the American Statistical Association, and academic institutions. · Allow public oversight of all audits, and prominently publicize all testing and audit results. · Report and publicize ballot accounting and final results in detail before certification This is not an exhaustive list of recommendations. However, the above items can form the basis of robust, enforceable, sensible federal standards that can restore needed confidence in American elections. Signed, 1. Ben Adida, Vice President, Engineering, Clever 2. Andrew W. Appel, Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University 3. Arlene Ash, Professor and Division Chief, Biostatistics and Health Services Research, Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School 4. Michael Bailey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 5. Ron Bandes, Cybersecurity member of the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission's Advisory Committee on voting system technology 6. Mary K. Batcher, Founding Partner, BDS Data Analytics and Former Executive Director, Ernst & Young 7. Steven M. Bellovin, Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor Computer Science, Columbia University 8. Jan BenDor, MI Elections Administrator, MI Election Reform Alliance 9. Matt Bishop, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis 10. Matthew Blaze, Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania 11. Scott Bradner, Professor, Information Science Department, Harvard University Extension School 12. Harvey H. Branscomb, Election Quality, Colorado Voter Group 13. Duncan Buell, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering and NCR Chair in Computer Science and Engineering, University of South Carolina 14. Eric W. Burger, Research Professor and Director, Security and Software Engineering Research Center, Georgetown University 15. David Chaum, ScanTegrity and Random-Sample Voting Projects 16. Stephen Checkoway, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago 17. Bryan Cunningham, Executive Director, Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, University of California, Irvine 18. Robert K. Cunningham, Chair, IEEE Cybersecurity Initiative 19. Reza Curtmola, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology 20. David L. Dill, Donald E. Knuth Professor in the School of Engineering, Stanford University and Founder of VerifiedVoting.org 21. Peter Eckersley, Chief Computer Scientist, Electronic Frontier Foundation 22. David Evans, Professor of Computer Science, University of Virginia 23. David J. Farber, Moore Professor Emeritus of Telecom, University of Pennsylvania and Adjunct Professor of Internet Studies, Carnegie Mellon University 24. Ariel Feldman, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Chicago 25. Edward W. Felten, Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University; former Deputy United States Chief Technology Officer 26. Bryan Ford, Associate Professor of Computer and Communications Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland 27. Carrie Gates, CEO, Securelytix Inc. 28. Jeremy Gillula, Senior Staff Technologist, Electronic Frontier Foundation 29. Alex Glaros, CEO, Center for Government Interoperability 30. Ian Goldberg, Professor and University Research Chair, Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo 31. Sharon Goldberg, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Boston University 32. Edward Gracely, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Drexel University 33. Matthew Green, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University 34. J. Alex Halderman, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering and Director, Center for Computer Security and Society, University of Michigan 35. Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Chief Technologist, Center for Democracy & Technology 36. Eleanor O. Hare, Associate Professor Emerita, Department of Computer Science, Clemson University 37. Candice Hoke, Co-Director, Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection, Cleveland State University 38. Ryan Hurst, Product Manager, Google 39. Harri Hursti, Founding Partner, Nordic Innovation Labs 40. David Jefferson, Visiting Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Board of Directors, VerifiedVoting.org 41. Jonathan Katz, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland and Director, Maryland Cybersecurity Center 42. Joe Kiniry, CEO and Chief Scientist, Free & Fair 43. Alex Kreilein, Managing Partner and Cofounder, SecureSet Accelerator 44. Jack I. Lerner, University of California, Irvine, Director, UCI Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic 45. Mark Lindeman, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Columbia University 46. Victoria Collier, Director, National Election Defense Coalition 47. Margaret MacAlpine, Election Auditing Specialist and Systems Testing Technologist, Nordic Innovation Labs 48. David A. Marker, Senior Statistician and Associate Director, Westat 49. Marilyn Marks, Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Foundation 50. Morgan Marquis-Boire, Director of Security, First Look Media 51. Neal McBurnett, Independent Election Integrity Consultant; Colorado Risk-Limiting Audit Representative Group member; Board of Directors, Center for Election Science 52. Bruce W. McConnell, Global Vice President, EastWest Institute and Former Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity, U.S. Department of Homeland Security 53. Patrick McDaniel, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Director, Institute for Networking and Security Research, Pennsylvania State University 54. Aleecia M. McDonald, Non-resident Fellow, Stanford Center for Internet & Society 55. Walter Mebane, Professor, Department of Political Science and Department of Statistics, University of Michigan 56. Sascha Meinrath, Director, X-Lab, Palmer Chair in Telecommunications, Penn State University 57. Suzanne Mello-Stark, Associate Teaching Professor and Cybersecurity SfS Program Manager, Computer Science Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute 58. Gregory A. Miller, Chief Election Technology Strategist, OSET Institute 59. Justin Moore, Software Engineer, Google and Member of the Board of Advisors, VerifiedVoting.org 60. Deirdre K. Mulligan, Associate Professor, School of Information and Faculty Director, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, University of California, Berkeley 61. Clifford Neuman, Director, Center for Computer Systems Security, University of Southern California 62. Peter G. Neumann, Senior Principal Scientist, SRI International Computer Science Lab and Moderator, ACM Risks Forum 63. Brian Nussbaum, Assistant Professor of Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, University at Albany 64. Ben Ptashnik, Executive Director, National Election Defense Coalition, Retired Vermont State Senator 65. Cooper Quintin, Technologist, Electronic Frontier Foundation 66. Ronald L. Rivest, Institute Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 67. Phillip Rogaway, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis 68. Paul Rosenzweig, Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington University and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Department of Homeland Security 69. Gabe Rottman, Deputy Director, Freedom, Security and Technology Project, Center for Democracy & Technology 70. Avi Rubin, Professor, Computer Science and Technical Director, Information Security Institute, Johns Hopkins University 71. Peter Ryan, Professor of Applied Security, University of Luxembourg 72. Andy Sayler, Security Engineer, Twitter 73. Fritz Scheuren, Former President, American Statistical Association (2006) 74. Jeffrey I. Schiller, Computer Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Former Internet Engineering Steering Group Area Director for Security (1994-2003) 75. Bruce Schneier, Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School 76. Alexander A. Schwarzmann, Professor and Head of Computer Science and Engineering Department, Director of the Center for Voting Technology Research, University of Connecticut 77. E. John Sebes, Chief Technology Officer, OSET Institute and TrustTheVote Project 78. Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer (retired), Senior Fellow, London Center for Policy Research 79. Micah Sherr, Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Georgetown University 80. Barbara Simons, IBM Research (retired) 81. Ashkan Soltani, Former Chief Technologist, Federal Trade Commission 82. Richard Spires, Former Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Homeland Security 83. Philip B. Stark, Associate Dean, Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Professor, Department of Statistics, University of California 84. Paul Stokes, United Voters of New Mexico 85. Justin Talbot-Zorn, Truman National Security Fellow 86. Vanessa Teague, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne 87. Brad Templeton, Computing Chair, Singularity University and Chairman Emeritus, Electronic Frontier Foundation 88. Zeynep Tufekci, Associate Professor, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina 89. Jessica Utts, President, American Statistical Association and Professor, Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine 90. Giovanni Vigna, Professor, Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara 91. Poorvi L. Vora, Professor of Computer Science, The George Washington University 92. Dan Wallach, Professor, Computer Science and Rice Scholar, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University 93. Mark Weatherford, Chief Cybersecurity Strategist, vArmour and Former Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity, U.S. Department of Homeland Security 94. Luther Weeks, Executive Director, Connecticut Citizen Election Audit 95. Daniel Weitzner, Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative and Principal Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab 96. Kenneth White, Director, Open Crypto Audit Project 97. Filip Zagorski, Assistant Professor, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology 98. Daniel Zappala, Associate Professor, Computer Science, Brigham Young University 99. Amy B. Zegart, Co-Director and Senior Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University and Davies Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution 100. Daniel M. Zimmerman, Principled Computer Scientists, Free & Fair 101. Philip R. Zimmermann, Cryptographer, Creator of PGP, Associate Professor, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands 102. Mary Ellen Zurko, Independent Cybersecurity Consultant 103. Trevor Zylstra, President and CEO, IDVector Please note: Individual affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not signify organizational endorsement. The National Election Defense Coalition (NEDC) and coalition partners compiled signatures for this letter.