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Elections Security Report Findings Released

 

December 24, 2007
Monday AM


In a press conference held Friday, Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell and the University of Alaska Anchorage released Phase 1 results of the Alaska Elections Security Project. Lieutenant Governor Parnell and the Alaska Division of Elections commissioned the study to examine the security and accuracy of the state's current voting system, and asked the University to make recommendations for improvement. The lieutenant governor was joined by Elections System Manager Shelly Growden; UAA Project Lead Luann Piccard; UAA Provost Mike Driscoll; Dean of Engineering Rob Lang; and Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research Steve Colt.

Phase 1of UAA's Alaska Election Security Project revealed many positive aspects of Alaska's Division of Elections procedures. The study found that the Division of Elections systems and procedures were "in many ways reassuring: Alaska's system has many features that improve security. Those include paper back-ups for electronic counts, cross-checking of vote counts in different locations, and a centralized system for state and federal elections throughout Alaska."

A number of potential vulnerabilities, including the transportation of ballots and vote recording machines to the Bush, were also identified and will be addressed in-depth in Phase 2 of the project, which will continue over the next three months.

"I was pleased with the Phase 1 results," Lieutenant Governor Parnell said today. "It shows that we're going in the right direction, and that, even prior to the commission of the study, we were meeting or exceeding security standards. We also recognize, however, that there is room for improvement, and we believe that nothing is more important than safeguarding the public's trust and allowing their voices to be heard through the ballot box. We look forward to continuing to partner with UAA in improving our Elections systems."

On the Web:

To read the full report and the Executive Summary, click on this link: http://www.elections.alaska.gov/election_security.php

To offer feedback on the report, click on this link:
http://www.elections.alaska.gov/email.php

 

Source of News:

Office of Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell
www.ltgov.state.ak.us

 

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Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska