US Election Assistance Commission - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Vote
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Name :   John S. Groh
Organization :   Election Systems & Software
Post Date :   9/30/2005

Section Comments
Section :  6.4.6.3.4
Page no. :  
Line no.:  
Comment :  """Voting system equipment shall provide a read-only external interface to access the software on the system …
(key locked/sealed for the interface
indicator light to show when interface is enabled
must be disabled during voting
direct read-only access to software location without use of installed software)"""

Comment:

Section I-6.4.6.2 requires the vendor to provide a process for validating the software/firmware in a system.  Section I-6.4.6.3.4 requires that the devices in a system have a read-only interface for obtaining such information from a device without altering the information on a device.  It is unlikely that some of the devices in use today have the ability to provide this information or to be altered to do so.  Also, the requirement for a read-only interface is one that seems unattainable.  We know of no way to install an interface on a box that will be, by interface specification, read-only.  Although one could restrict it to read-only programmatically, that is not what this requirement stipulates. .