US Election Assistance Commission - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Vote
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Section CommentsGeneral CommentsGlossary Comments
 
Name :   Warren Smith
Organization :   N/A
Post Date :   9/30/2005

General Comments
Comment :  LIMITS ON COMPUTING POWER AND SECRET MANIPULABILITY:  
If a voting machine contains a computer, then it should be demanded  
that the computer contain  
* at most 1 Kbyte of random-access read/write memory, including  
"registers" and "cache".  
* unlimited amount of read-only random access memory (ROM) but all  
ROM is required to be built-in and not easily replaceable.  
* unlimited amount of write-only random access memory.  
* unlimited amount of unidirectional-sequential-access read/write  
memory.  
(In the above, "memory" includes both semiconductor, magnetic, or any  
other kind, and any removable rewriteable media such as disks.  
"Write-once"  
memory such as PROMs or writeable optical disks does NOT count as  
"read-only" -  
it counts are "writeable" even if the voting machine itself does not have  
that writing capability.)  
* The clock rate of the computer shall be at most 10 MegaHertz.  
* All software must be made public by the manufacturer,  
on a US government web site, at least a year before the machine is  
used and throughout the operation of the machine, and in  
both compiled and source-code forms, and with that source code  
agreed by experts to be "clearly written".