E-Voting Firm Threatens Ed Felten
Found on Techdirt on Monday, 17 March 2008
It would appear that the folks at Sequoia, one of the big three e-voting firms out there, is somewhat unaware of this aspect of Felten's past. In the past few years, Felten has been one of a few top computer science experts who have been picking apart the problems with e-voting machines.
Felten has become one of the go-to guys when various governments are reviewing e-voting machines, so it should come as no surprise that election officials in New Jersey (where Felten lives and works) would be interested in having him run some tests on a Sequoia e-voting machine.
Sequoia has, instead, sent a threatening email to Felten, saying that election officials who sent a machine to Felten would be breaking the state's terms of service with Sequoia.
There's no reason to threaten a researcher who just wants to check if a system is secure; in fact, it should be highly welcomed and can be great PR. That is, if your product is secure. The more and more problems it has, the more likely it is that this check will turn into a nightmare; but then, if you create a piece of junk, you're asking for it.