What's in store for EVT/WOTE '12?

EVT/WOTE '12 Co-Chairs, J. Alex Halderman and Oliver Pereira, tell us what they've helped plan for the 2012 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections:

Rikki: Who will be keynoting the event this year and what is the theme of his or her talk?

Alex and Oliver: Dean C. Logan will be keynoting. Dean Logan is the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for Los Angeles County, known to be the most complex county election juridiction of the US, and as such, Dean in particular is responsible for maintaining the 4.1 million registered voter files among 500 political districts. Dean Logan also serves on numerous committees and working groups aiming at improving elections.

We look forward to learning more about his recent efforts toward more trustworthy elections, and about the most important challenges that he would like to see addressed!

Rikki: Who will be on the panel and what is the topic?

Alex and Oliver: We're planning a panel on voting system certification that will include Philip Stark and Ron Rivest (MIT), with David Wagner (UC Berkeley) moderating.  The US voting systems go through thorough technical certification processes, while the EU only offers recommendations and observation.  Research efforts also go in the direction of designing techniques that allow certifying the result of an election rather than certifying a voting machine.  The panelists will discuss whether we need more certification or less, and what reforms might make certification policies more effective at achieving trustworthy elections.

Rikki:  What about Dana Chinell's Invited talk on August 7 - what can attendees expect from that talk?

Alex and Oliver: We will learn about Dana's outstanding efforts toward improving the design and usability of ballots. Dana's work make elections more fair and helps the result representing more accurately the opinions of the voters.

Rikki: Obviously "voting" is a huge topic this year. What sessions or themes will apply to the US Presidential Election?

Alex and Oliver:  Risk limiting audits (Tuesday, 3PM session) are a new technology that will be deployed as part of a pilot program during the November elections in various counties. These audits use advanced statistical techniques to provide assurance that the election outcome is correct by recounting a very small fraction of random ballots.

Rikki: Which talks or speakers are you most excited about at this year's event?

Alex and Oliver: Diego Aranha from the University of Brasilia will talk about the Brazilian experience in the use of electronic voting.  Diego recently led a team that participated in a public security test of the country's DRE voting machines.  His team uncovered multiple software vulnerabilities, including flaws that can be used to reconstruct the order in which votes were cast and violate the secret ballot.

Rikki: Anything else attendees should know about the upcoming event?

Alex and Oliver: Don't miss the rump session on Monday evening!

EVT/WOTE '12 will be co-located with the 21st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security '12), which will take place August 8–10, 2012. Watch our 2011 EVT/WOTE videos to see what you missed last year.