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Daniel P. Lopresti:  Other Activities

E-Voting Systems
Several colleagues and I have written a letter to our state legislators outlining our concerns with current plans to introduce e-voting technology here in PA. For a copy of our letter, click here.

For the announcement of a panel session I helped organize on the e-voting controversy and its associated risks in April 2006, click here.
My PowerPoint slides for the panel session (PDF format) appear here.
For media coverage of the panel session, see the links below.

In October 2006, two colleagues, Chris Borick (from the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion) and Ziad Munson (from the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Lehigh), and I released the results of a telephone poll of Pennsylvania voters measuring their attitudes towards e-voting. In a nutshell, voters overwhelmingly want to see a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), and while they are open to the idea of electronic voting, express wariness about the vulnerabilities of such systems. For the complete results of the survey, click here.

In a major new development (late November 2006), NIST has come out with a recommendation that purely electronic systems (those with no paper backup) be scrapped. They note:

"One conclusion drawn by NIST is that the lack of an independent audit capability in DRE voting systems is one of the main reasons behind continued questions about voting system security and diminished public confidence in elections. NIST does not know how to write testable requirements to make DREs secure, and NIST’s recommendation to the STS is that the DRE in practical terms cannot be made secure. Consequently, NIST and the STS recommend that VVSG 2007 should require voting systems to be of the SI “class,” whose readily available (albeit not always optimal) examples include op scan and DRE-VVPAT."

Click here for the full NIST draft report.


New Radio Show!
"Voice of the Voters! Power and Responsibility of Democracy" by Mary Ann Gould of the Coalition for Voting Integrity. Listen on WNJC, 1360AM, Philadelphia's Renaissance Radio Station and everywhere on the Internet. Planned guests include:
  • 10/18 - Lowell Finley of Berkeley, California. Mr. Finley has practiced election law for over 20 years and is one of the few attorneys in the nation with experience litigating electronic voting issues. Mr. Finley led recent legal action in New Mexico and also won an important voting rights case in Colorado.
  • 10/25 - Professor Daniel Lopresti from Lehigh University (me!). I'll be discussing the recent survey we conducted of voters' opinions in Pennsylvania and related issues concerning electronic voting. For details on the survey, click here.
  • 11/1 - Professor Avi Rubin from Johns Hopkins. Dr. Rubin is one of the top voting security experts in the country and a leading critic of electronic voting security. He is the author of Brave New Ballot, which tells the story of his role as a whistle-blower (including the toll it took on his career and family) and recounts his observations as an election judge in Baltimore County, which gave him a full picture of electronic voting in action.
  • 11/15 - Dr. Steve Freeman from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Freeman did the ground-breaking exit poll study comparing battleground states to "safe" states showing significant anomalies in the former with respect to the reported results. His new book, "Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count" is garnering much attention.
    Also appearing on this same program: Barry Kauffman, Executive Director of Common Cause PA, discussing the problems reported to the 866-MYVOTE1 and 866-OURVOTE hotlines on election day, and Marian K. Schneider, Esq., one of the lead attorneys for a lawsuit challenging the use of DRE (touchscreen) machines in Pennsylvania.

Because voting is fundamental to our democratic system of government, every citizen has a vested interest in this subject. Please note that our position is not a political one, nor does it necessarily reflect the official position of Lehigh University. Rather, our goal is to see that e-voting technology is applied securely and fairly wherever it is used.

In general, the press has done a fine job when they have covered this; here are some of the news stories that have appeared where we get mentioned:
However, there is some misinformation floating around as well. In a nutshell, we do not oppose the use of electronic voting machines. Rather, we want to be sure the proper safeguards are in place. Despite assertions to the contrary, the systems we see under consideration for use here in Pennsylvania fall well short of this goal. At a minimum, such systems must employ a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). Officials who are in charge of preparing the machines and overseeing elections must be educated as to the significant new security concerns that arise in replacing mechanical systems with electronic ones (e.g., they must be instructed to change default passwords to something more secure). The use of systems that employ any sort of networking technology, especially wireless networking, raises additional serious issues and should be avoided, at least for now. Finally, we would like to see the source code for e-voting systems made openly available for scrutiny by independent experts; history and experience have shown that it is dangerous to base the security of large, widely-deployed software systems on the mistaken assumption that the code can be kept secret.

For those who have an interest in better understanding the technical details, I recommend reading the following original source material authored by respected researchers on e-voting systems:
And here's some other related media coverage of the e-voting issue:

The following newspaper article contains some troubling statements asserting that the use of a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) is "unnecessary," "redundant," and "expensive":
These opinions reflect common misconnceptions concerning the nature of the problem. Here is my response, sent as a letter to the editor of the newpaper which appeared (slightly edited) in the June 14 edition:
"I'm both puzzled and troubled by statements made by Northampton Registrar Deborah DePaul as reported in the article on e-voting in today's Morning Call. As a professor of computer science and a researcher in cybersecurity, I have an understanding of the vulnerabilities that are present in these machines, which are nothing more than specialized computer systems. One point that is often missed is that such systems can be compromised in ways that are almost impossible to detect, even for an expert, let alone a volunteer poll worker or untrained election official. As is the case with the more familiar computer viruses that propagate around the Internet, a machine can appear to be operating normally -- tallying votes correctly in small-scale tests before election day -- only to begin malfunctioning when the votes really count, just as computer viruses can be programmed to activate on a certain day. The fact that a system records multiple copies of a voter's ballot in separate memories means nothing if every electronic copy has been altered in the same way because the system has been hacked. As many other states have determined, including most recently California, only a hardcopy paper audit trail provides for independent confirmation of a voter's intentions should a re-count be necessary."

"DePaul states that she "will be fighting" the incorporation of paper audit trails in Northampton's e-voting machines because the printouts would be too expensive. I have yet to see data that supports this assertion. I will note, however, that Diebold, one of the major vendors of e-voting equipment, also produces the ATMs used by many banks which reliably and inexpensively print paper receipts for each and every transaction, no matter how small. When I buy a cup of coffee at a local fast food place and ask for a receipt, they happily provide one. Whatever the small extra expense having a paper audit trail entails, we must take the stand that fair and trustworthy elections are most certainly worth it."

Pending legislation regarding e-voting:


Computer Science as a Discipline
We need to work to increase participation by women and under-represented minorities in the field of Computer Science.
  • On Febraury 1, 2006, we hosted a visit by Maria Klawe, Dean of Engineering at Princeton and soon-to-be President of Harvey Mudd College, on the topic “Gender, Lies and Video Games: the Truth about Females and Computing”.
    • Click here for a copy of her PowerPoint slides in PDF format.
    • Click here for an article in the Brown and White, Lehigh's student newspaper, about her visit. (Note: while I appreciate the complement :-), there's only one true student in the accompanying photograph: Emily Cohen, Lehigh '08 on the right.)


Lehigh Service: Department, College, University
As Chair of the CSE Department Colloquium Committee for 2005-06, I conceived and organized our Distinguished Seminar Series:

Oct. 19, 2005
Wednesday
 Bill Cheswick
Chief Scientist, Lumeta Corporation - Lehigh '75
 “Mapping the Internet and Intranets”
Oct. 25, 2005
Tuesday
 George Kledaras
CEO CecilRep, LLC and CEO FIXML Flyer, LLC - Lehigh '87
 “Adventures of an Engineer-Mathematician on Wall Street”
Nov. 10, 2005
Thursday
 Rebecca Mercuri
Noted computer security consultant and columnist
 “E-voting in an Untrustworthy World”
Nov. 17, 2005
Thursday
 Christos Faloutsos
Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
 “Data Mining using Fractals and Power Laws”
Dec. 2, 2005
Friday
 Janet Davidson
Chief Strategy Officer, Lucent Technologies, Inc. - Lehigh '78
 “The Role of Computer Science in Telecommunication Networks and Systems”
Jan. 18, 2006
Wednesday
 Kenneth Forbus
Professor of Computer Science and Education, Northwestern University
 “Companions: A Cognitive Architecture Based on Analogical Processing”
Feb. 1, 2006
Wednesday
 Maria Klawe
Dean of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University
 “Gender, Lies, and Video Games: the Truth about Females and Computing”
May 1, 2006
Monday
 Susan Dumais
Principal Researcher,
Microsoft Research
 “Personal Information Management: Helping Finders Become Keepers”

Some of my other Lehigh service activies include:
  • RCEAS Bio, Environmental, and Molecular Engineering Advisory Council (2006-present).
  • Faculty Steering Committee, RCEAS Representative (2006-present).
  • Rules and Procedures Subcommittee of the Faculty Steering Committee (2006-present).
  • Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Nomination Committee (2006-present).
  • Lehigh University Presidential Inauguration Committee (2006).
  • Plus many others too numerous to mention (see my Vita for a more detailed list).


Professional Associations
I am a member of the following professional societies:


Princeton-Related Activities
I am proud to be engaged in many alumni activities at Princeton University, where I received my PhD in Computer Science in 1987.
  • Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni (APGA)
    • Governing Board (1997-present)
    • President (2006-present)
    • Vice President (2004-2006)
    • Treasurer (1998-2000)
    • Executive Committee (1998-present)
    • Departmental Relations Committee (Chair 2001-2004)
    • Nominations & Awards Committee (2005-present)
  • Princeton University Alumni Council
    • Executive Committee (1999-present)
    • Planning & Review Committee (2001-2003)
    • Technology Advisory Committee (1998-present, Vice Chair 1999-2001, Chair 2001-2003)



Webpage last updated November 30, 2006.
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Computer Science & Engineering, Packard Laboratory, Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA 18015