By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Voting and the technology used to cast a ballot are the specialty of data security expert turned e-voting security guru Jim Adler. Adler, founder and CEO of VoteHere, will be the opening program speaker for the launch of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Blue Knot Technology Group when it kicks off its inaugural meeting on Sept. 22
Speaking about “Tech and the Election,” the world-class expert in cryptography and Internet security will tell the inaugural gathering of Jewish technology professionals about his patent-pending voting software that he believes can guarantee transparent elections and help resolve one of the most insidious corruptions in the political process that has plagued societies throughout history – election fraud.
“We are excited to have Blue Knot in Seattle and we hope that Jim Adler will attract a large group of technology professionals,” said Dayna Klein, the Federation’s director of major gifts, which touts the initiatve as a “networking opportunity for Jews who work in all sectors of technology to come together, share information and find out about new advances in their fields.”
At Blue Knot’s most recent meeting in Washington, D.C., Steve Marks, general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America spoke about the future of digital media.
Blue Knot groups are already established in 16 other cities across the U.S. and are sponsored by the United Jewish Communities federation system.
At the first Seattle Blue Knot meeting, which is being sponsored by Microsoft, Adler will deal with the highly technical aspects of his computer software for voting machines, said Klein.
Adler, who began the Bellevue-based VoteHere in 1998 is an actual “rocket scientist” trained at the University of California at San Diego in electrical engineering. He witnessed the launch of the Alpha Centaur rocket up close while working in the Space Systems Division at General Dynamics.
While trying to build his data security company in the Northwest and also satisfy investors, Adler realized he could leverage his technical aplomb while contributing to society. He is now considered the leading expert in the world in the area of secure electronic voting.
In an interview with JTNews from his offices in Bellevue in late August, Adler discussed the political and societal ramifications of his company’s technology.
“We always hoped there would be a spotlight on how imperfect elections are and how they need improvement,” said Adler. “Election 2000 really showed us that our current voting system was really problematic.”
Adler says his software, if installed in any electronic voting machines in use today, can put an end to spoiled ballots because each voter gets a receipt and checks that receipt for any mistakes in his or her vote.
VoteHere has applied for eight patents on its two voting software technologies: VHTi, a voter-verified audit technology, that gives the voter a receipt and records an independent verifiable transcript of the all the votes in a particular location; and RemoteVote, an e-voting platform that allows voters to cast ballots from phones, digital televisions or even kiosks anywhere in the world, with complete security.
“We force it to catch itself,” said Adler, talking about how his company’s programs make voting machines virtually error-proof and are as simple to install as a software upgrade.
Adler said he has found documentation of election fraud in the U.S. from as far back as the 1850s, and that elections have always been subject to tampering. The scientist says he really doesn’t care about computer hackers, the integrity of vendors of voting machines like Diebold or Sequoia, or the administrators and poll workers who work in designated voting locations.
What he wants to know is whether or not that fraud can be detected.
“You want to have a dog that’s going to bark every time someone comes through the fence,” he said.
Adler believes that U.S. election officials, political activists and the American people must realize that voter fraud is not the battleground issue – it’s the documentation and the verification of that vote, in the hand of the voter and at the time of the transaction that counts.
“There were 2 million spoiled ballots in the 2000 election, but the problem really wasn’t the ‘hanging chads’ or the ‘pregnant chads’ or what constituted a punch-through that caused the problem for election officials,” said Adler. “It really was the question, ‘What constituted a vote?’ If you can verify that your vote counted, that’s the benchmark.”
In the upcoming November election, approximately 30 percent of the votes in precincts across the country will use one of five methods to cast and count their ballots – touch screens, punch cards, levers, central-count optical scan and precinct-based optical scan.
“It’s going to be a real roller coaster ride on Nov. 2,” he said.
According to Adler, only two voting technologies, the touch screen and the precinct-based optical scan provide immediate electronic feedback to the voter showing that their vote was recorded correctly.
“The voter has the critical role to play because only they know their intent,” said Adler. “The voter must have their vote verified with a private receipt and watchdog groups must verify vote totals.”
Precinct-based optical scan machines collect and keep the tally of votes in that local precinct whereas a central tabulator program, like the notoriously hackable Diebold GEMS program, feeds all of the votes from all of their computers into a centralized tabulator in a separate location to be stored and referred to for the election summary report at the close of an election.
It is this lack of supervision and control once the votes are sent to another location that presents the other part of a potential voting catastrophe for Adler.
“Anyone can swap a ballot box or throw it away, which is usually what happens,” said Adler.
Blue Knot’s first meeting will be held at the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus in Seattle. There is no fee to attend, but parking costs $4. Register at blueknotregistration@jewishinseattle.org or 206-774-2220.