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0	7440	You've been working so hard. Thank you, thank you. All right, folks. Looks like the stream is
7440	13540	active, and I'd like to thank our speaker again for this presentation. Take it away, Reem.
14140	22880	Okay, thank you. So, I'm Reem Buznek, as Steve already said, and I will be talking about the
22880	29160	security of Pennsylvania election systems. This was a project that I conducted under
29160	38160	the supervision of Professor Andrea Mitwishin. Can you go to the next slide, Steve?
38600	44240	Yep, I got you. Thank you. This is Professor Andrea Mitwishin. I believe that everyone knows
44240	50360	her, but it was good to put that picture there. And then, if you hit again, Steve, you will find
50360	62960	my face. There you go. And who am I? I'm a law graduate. I had two master's degrees. I focused
62960	68900	on, in the first one, I focused on internet regulations and freedom of expression in the
68900	75560	MENA region, the Middle East and North Africa. And in this second master's, I focused on national
75560	81160	security law and information security law. And I was working with Professor Mitwishin
81160	86360	as a research assistant. And hopefully, and very soon, I will be joining the pilot lab
86360	95580	as a postdoctoral fellow. So, I'm going to tell you now what we're going to be talking exactly
95580	102100	about. First of all, I will start with a brief introduction to the history of Pennsylvania
102100	109160	election system security. I will tell you a little bit about some fraud cases, some
110420	119140	problems in the information in the voting systems, et cetera, and how the new administration
120280	128180	improved the current election system. Then I will tell you more about the core of the project,
128180	138860	which is more about sending write-to-no requests to every county in Pennsylvania, all of the 67.
138940	144320	And then asking for copies of election system vendor agreements, related documents,
144320	149620	technical specificities, et cetera. And then in the third part of my speech, I will
150680	156220	tell you about my preliminary findings based on the review of the agreements
156220	164900	and I will tell you all about how many documents we received, what types of documents, et cetera.
165720	174740	You go, Steve. Thank you. So, as I said, I will start with the election history in PA.
174740	181280	So, according to the Heritage Foundation, there have been only 23 fraud cases in the history of
181280	188440	elections. But when we say only 23, it doesn't mean that they're not important.
189360	199440	So, I gathered some examples of fraud cases in Pennsylvania. The first one is about Robin. Robin
199440	205940	is a judge of elections and with the help of Laura, who is an election inspector, she signed
205940	215120	under her son's name and cast a ballot in his place. So, it's an impersonation fraud, as opposed.
215120	223560	The second case is about this guy, Mr. Victor, who voted in both Philadelphia and Lehigh County.
223560	233540	So, he casted two ballots. The third case is Mr. Richard. Actually, he's a former police chief
233540	242220	of Harmon Township in Allegheny County. And he applied for absentee ballots and made people not
242220	249120	eligible for the absentee ballot to cast them. And in a while, I will tell you about the absentee
249120	257640	ballot and what it exactly means. A fourth example is the former congressman,
259060	268120	Austin Murphy. He actually also committed absentee ballot fraud. He made senior citizens in nursing
268120	276120	homes to vote in a certain way, the way he wanted. But he said that he was just helping them.
276280	284960	So, we believe him. And the last case is Harry. It's a new one in 2019. And he actually picked
284960	293160	up girls. He made girls sign absentee ballots in the names of deceased people, which makes me a
293160	305020	little bit sorry because with the advanced systems of ensuring that there are no duplicate registration,
305020	313140	there are still, until 2019, it is still possible to impersonate a deceased person.
315640	323360	Next slide, please. So, the problems in the election system in Pennsylvania
323360	329820	isn't only about fraud cases, but also about election system malfunctions. So,
329820	338620	these are some examples prior to 2005 that I gathered. And they're mostly about the DRE
339660	346780	malfunctions. DRE, it means direct recording electronic voting machines, which means that
346780	356600	these voting machines do not use paper ballot systems. So, the only record of the votes that
356600	368360	have been cast is electronic. That's why there was this case in 2004. DRE records 83% blank
368360	377560	presidential votes, which doesn't make sense. And that's why they knew that there were these
377560	386700	malfunctions. And this is a funny story, another one in 2012. There is this person who actually
387240	395260	took a video with his smartphone of the malfunction. He made a video of the voting system,
395260	407830	how it changed his vote from Obama to another candidate. Next slide, please.
411160	420800	So, before the enactment of HAVA, Pennsylvania's election law provided new statewide guidelines.
420800	429080	Basically, all the 67 counties were autonomous, and they had different election systems
429080	437800	using a variety of voting machines. The HAVA is the Help America Vote Act. It was enacted in 2002,
437800	445760	and it created a new mandatory minimum standards for states to follow in several key areas of
445760	453360	election administration. It also required states to establish a statewide voter registration
453360	469140	database, and it made the state follow certain systems over others and made high standards for
469140	480080	the voting machines that can be used for elections. About the statewide voter registration
480080	488020	base, Pennsylvania has a top-down system, which means that it makes a central platform
488020	495680	at the state level that connects with all the local jurisdictions. So, it goes top to down.
495680	506040	They gather information on a state level. Also, before, there weren't any information
506040	517980	security training programs before 2018. And now, since many requirements became,
517980	525180	like many things became required under Act 77, I will tell you about it in a while,
526640	534980	companies started having the responsibilities and the obligations to provide their customers
534980	548840	with training regarding the usage of the voting systems or how to maintain their security.
549440	561300	The other thing is that, so, as I said, the DRE voting machines do not use paper ballots.
561300	570760	So, the only records that are kept are electronic. And now, Pennsylvania has changed all its
571480	580060	voting systems, voting machines. Over 25,000 voting machines have been replaced. And the
580060	588940	governor made them use all voter-verifiable paper records. And actually, it helped, because I will
588940	597520	tell you in a little bit about some cases in 2019 that some malfunctions happened in the voting
597520	608260	machines and they had to turn to those paper ballots. Can we go to the next slide? Thank you.
608260	618540	So, the new administration brought improvements. First, by purchasing new, more accessible,
618540	635170	auditable, and secure voting systems. The second thing is that it enacted Act 77,
635170	643350	which I will talk a little bit more about in a minute. But thanks to this Act,
643350	649170	all Pennsylvanians can now vote by mailing ballots without having to provide an excuse,
649170	660710	which helps people to register more. And because the way it used to be, it was that you can only
660710	668290	cast your ballot through the mail if you have an excuse. Now, you don't need an excuse. You just
668290	679090	apply for it. Also, now counties make election officials do random tests of voting machines on
679090	687130	election days. And they incorporated added checks and other improvements into the SURE system to
687130	695150	reduce data errors and improve accuracy. About the SURE system, so it's an abbreviation of Statewide
695150	704450	Uniform Registry of Electors. And it's a system that Pennsylvania has to assist the counties with
704450	714310	training and user development, continuous improvement, etc. And there were, so as we
714310	722050	talked a little bit earlier about impersonating deceased people, so developing the SURE system
722050	735290	helps minimize the number of duplicates or the use of registered deceased people.
735450	746170	Next, please. So here you go. Act 77, election reform bill. It was enacted in 2019, so mainly
746170	755250	the biggest thing about this bill is that it allows mail-in ballots. As I said,
755250	765050	anyone can apply for a mail-in ballot. So basically, if you are eligible to vote,
765050	772910	you are eligible to apply for a mail-in ballot. And you can apply for it until
773310	780990	the Tuesday before the election. The absentee ballot is the same as it was. If you have
781550	792130	a disability or illness, if you are in the military, if you have a religious celebration
792130	801230	that conflicts with the date of the elections, you can apply for an absentee ballot. So this is
801230	814880	for people with an excuse. And under Act 77, the shortcut straight party button,
814880	820840	which is also known as the straight ticket to vote for all candidates of one party,
820840	829740	is no longer available. And there was a lot of tension about this because both sides say that
829740	840280	it will make the voter reluctant as to vote for all candidates and look for who is Republican,
840280	848820	who is Democrat. But it was taken off. And also, another thing that was prohibited is the use of
848820	859020	stickers for writing candidates. Writing candidates are people who you may vote for
859020	868080	despite not being in the ballot. And what I mean by sticker is that in their campaigns, these
868780	876300	people can distribute some stickers to the people having their names on. And it used to be
876300	886620	that the voters can just put the sticker on the paper ballot and it will be counted.
886620	894800	Now, the stickers are prohibited to be used and the stamps are very discouraged to be used
894800	904280	because of the wet ink. But it's not prohibited under Act 77. Next slide.
908070	916050	So the use of mail-in ballots and this new Act encouraged more people to enroll in the
916050	923270	elections. So this year, 1.8 million Pennsylvanians applied for mail-in ballots
923270	934130	and it is 17 times more than the elections of 2016. But there is a problem with that,
934130	940410	is that the current election code doesn't allow election officials to begin counting ballots until
940410	948510	7 a.m. on the election day. And election officers are worried that they wouldn't be able to meet the
948510	959770	deadline and to announce the results the night of November 3. And even the former governor is calling
959770	969390	the election officials to make it possible to start counting the ballots earlier. But we will
969390	980010	see what happens. And even with all these improvements, some counties still experience
980010	988670	election system malfunctions in this June elections. The next, please.
989670	998650	So many problems, many malfunctions were reported. I will give you three examples. York
998650	1008450	County, Northampton County and Bucks County. In York County, the paper ballot system was defective
1008450	1019970	because the ballots were printed on shorter paper and the scanners could not read those ballots.
1019970	1026840	And for some papers, some other papers, it took longer than it should be to read those ballots.
1026840	1036000	The case is worse in Northampton County, because in this case, there was a problem with the
1036000	1043180	tabulation in some of the precincts. And the state ordered the county to count the paper ballots
1043180	1051820	rather than rely on machine totals. And why it says human error late, it's because... so the
1051820	1061580	manufacturer later explained and told everyone that 50% of the machines were actually
1064360	1076720	improperly manufactured. So who to blame? And the last example is Bucks County. In Bucks County,
1076720	1083960	there was also a problem with the paper ballots because of the irregularities. And the irregularities
1083960	1092540	made the papers a fraction of an inch too wide to fit into the new built-in machine scanners.
1093540	1104980	So before, the problem was we do not have paper ballot machines. Now we have them, but the papers
1104980	1112160	they used, they didn't make sure that the paper ballots fit the scanners. Now whose
1114520	1123260	problem is this? It should be the manufacturer, because they should provide the counties with all
1126190	1133940	the systems and everything that goes with them to perform as expected.
1137550	1147150	Can I have the next, please? So I told why I talked in the beginning about this in order to
1147670	1155410	tell you a little bit why we made this project, why we started this project. Because there is
1155610	1161870	a natural problem in the election system. There are malfunctions and they are affecting
1161870	1170850	the polls and the counts. So we decided to do this project. Next slide, please.
1170850	1178830	We decided to do this project and to have an idea about the contracts that have been signed
1178830	1190990	between the counties and the voting system companies. We also wanted to have a sense of
1190990	1198690	which systems are used in which counties, because there are a lot of different systems used.
1198690	1207630	And we also wanted to have a closer read on the agreements in order to see what are the system
1207630	1215250	vendors' duties towards the counties and how would they assure maintaining the information
1215250	1225610	security of the systems. That's our background. Next, please. So how we started doing this?
1226290	1234870	Pennsylvania has a right to know law, number 65, and it provides for access to public information
1234870	1243210	obtained from local government or state agencies. Pursuant to this law, we sent 67 requests,
1243210	1253890	one to each county. We started on the 15th of April, 2020, and most counties invoked the 30
1253890	1263570	days extension. And we are still waiting for many counties to respond and to provide us with
1264020	1271090	the documents we requested. And in a little bit, I will give you the exact numbers.
1271620	1279950	So here are the responses we got. The counties varied in dealing with our right to know request.
1280170	1292010	44 out of 67 counties provided us with the documents, but they also varied in what documents
1292010	1304850	they provided us with. And 14 counties invoked the 30 days extension, but they still didn't
1305610	1314970	provide us with the documents. And it has been three months now, so maybe we should re-request.
1317130	1324130	So seven counties didn't respond at all to our request. And let me, just to clarify,
1324130	1331870	all the requests were sent by email, online. And we made sure, and I made sure,
1331870	1337150	that we contacted the right people, the open records officers.
1338750	1348690	And then two counties were hard to reach. One didn't have online applications, so we will
1348690	1360970	have to send them a mail or a fax. Yeah, they still use that. And two counties, only two
1360970	1367610	counties requested payments. So these counties requested payment for printing and for the
1367610	1374390	flash drives, not for anything else. All the other counties were nice enough to send us everything
1374390	1386590	without requiring any payment. Next please. So as I said, now I was talking about 67 counties.
1386590	1393290	Now I'm only going to talk about 44 counties, the counties that provided us with the documents
1393290	1405910	and the ones that responded to our requests. I noticed that there are four companies the
1405910	1413230	counties have been dealing with. Dominion Voting Systems Incorporated, 10 counties
1413230	1421430	signed with them. Election Systems and Software, ES&S, 25 counties signed with them.
1421430	1431490	Clear Ballot Group, seven counties signed with them. And Election IQ, two counties signed with
1431490	1442470	them. And let me say that the terms of the contracts that we receive vary from a company
1442470	1450510	to another. They don't all have the same terms. And I will be talking about the terms in a little
1450510	1457770	bit. Can we have the next slide, please? And here we go. The documents received in total.
1457770	1471390	As I said, each county sent us the documents they assumed fit. So we received 40 sales agreements,
1471390	1479290	14 sales orders, 11 purchase orders, four invoices, 10 bids. About the bids,
1479290	1487210	some counties sent us only the bid of the company they signed with. And some counties sent us all
1487210	1496210	the bids they received from all companies and the agreement. Six counties sent us the manuals.
1496210	1506650	By manuals, I mean the documents containing technical specifications about the system,
1506650	1515750	the voting system used. 14 counties sent us marketing materials. Marketing materials are
1515750	1527170	mostly flyers and papers showing how exactly as a voter you use the election system. So nothing
1527170	1536610	elaborate. Two reports, interior reports. So they made a diagnosis before the usage of
1537390	1547550	the voting machines. So they sent us the reports. Two counties sent us their loan agreements. So
1547550	1555710	they had loan agreements in order to be able to buy and purchase the new voting systems.
1555710	1561130	Two counties sent us their codes and two counties sent us product schedule.
1561690	1572470	So we were lucky enough to have at least 40 agreements at hand. Now, about the NDA,
1573850	1583830	18 counties invoked NDA. And it was mainly about the technical specifications
1583830	1591750	of the voting machines. They mostly, they all provided us with the agreement.
1592270	1602670	But some, so 18 of them didn't provide us, said that they cannot provide us with the
1602670	1612270	technical specificities because of a non-disclosure agreement. 16 did not invoke NDAs,
1612270	1619330	but that doesn't mean that they provided us with all the documents we asked for. They just
1619330	1625730	didn't invoke it and didn't send us. But the good thing is that they say we can appeal,
1625730	1638390	but we didn't appeal. And 8 counties did not invoke NDAs, but they just said we do not have
1638390	1646490	those documents. And as you see here, the language varies from a county to another. Some counties
1646490	1655990	made an effort to provide us with elaborate responses with legal explanation. Other counties,
1656490	1663430	for example, they said the company had us read up the information or we cannot, the information
1664050	1669870	you're asking for or the documents requested are not public records and that's it.
1672550	1679670	And so all counties that provided manuals, you know, remember the six manuals we received,
1679670	1689610	did not invoke NDAs. And even though they did not deny providing documents pursuant to an NDA
1689610	1695410	provision, counties varied in the number of documents they provided and they mostly did
1695410	1704090	not provide us with technical specifications. Yeah. Can we go to the next slide, please?
1704290	1713190	Thank you. And now, so that's about the project. Now to be more specific and to have
1713910	1722450	preliminary comparisons between the terms of contracts from the different, the four companies
1723310	1727030	the counties were dealing with. The next, please.
1728530	1737750	So as you see in the first slide, I just put some different pricings. Each company had a
1737750	1749910	different price. The prices varied from 450,000 to 700 and so thousands. Next, please.
1751450	1759730	But the thing that mostly all counties agreed upon in all their different companies,
1759730	1766050	in all their different agreements, were the company's responsibilities. So each company
1767750	1775690	is obliged to deliver a complete voting system, having the hardware and the software,
1775690	1783510	according to the agreed upon project schedule, install the hardware and the software for the
1783510	1797190	county, provide a user license, assign a project manager to help with, to enable all services and
1797190	1804310	to make sure that all deliverables have been sent in a proper way and according to the agreement.
1805710	1814690	Also, they are bound to provide customers with all product documentations, architecture and
1814690	1821430	technical specifications, et cetera. And they are required to provide the necessary training
1821430	1829690	materials to the counties and, I mean, the election officials and provide access to
1829690	1837690	training videos if they are available and or provide trainings on site if they were required.
1838210	1844830	And also, they would assist in the acceptance testing process. But one vendor, though,
1844830	1854230	stated an additional responsibility and it was that they will have to remove and securely destroy
1854230	1861030	all voting machines currently owned by the client and the certificate of destruction
1861030	1868070	shall be issued to the client. That was one vendor that was required to do that.
1869250	1880950	Back to the NDA. So, the NDA clause in the agreement, all the companies included a
1880950	1889090	confidentiality clause and all companies included a definition of either confidential information
1889090	1896970	or proprietary information, which is good from a lawyer perspective because these terms are pretty
1896970	1905130	vague and if you do not include them and if you don't include the definition, basically,
1905130	1914510	if one party discloses certain information, it will be hard to prove that it was confidential
1914510	1926430	information in the sense of the agreement. So, basically, it says that neither party
1926430	1933110	shall disclose to any third party any proprietary or confidential information of the other party
1933630	1939740	and the information should be used by parties with reasonable care not to allow disclosure.
1941340	1949550	One vendor indicated that this agreement, the confidentiality agreement, is binding even after
1950170	1959890	the term of the sales agreement and two vendors stated that if the customer was asked to disclose
1959890	1966430	certain information, they must notify the company and request their consent and I actually saw that
1966430	1974410	in many emails between me and the accountant, they stated in the email that we provide you
1974410	1984330	these documents but I will be contacting the company and asking whether it is possible to
1984330	1990050	share other information with you and they wait for their consent and then they get back to me
1990050	1999410	with the documents if the company accepts. But one remark here is that the six counties
2000010	2007130	that provided us with manuals were also bound by such confidentiality agreements
2007130	2013990	but they still provided the documents, the technical specificities. So, to what extent
2013990	2020030	are the counties respecting such NDAs? I don't know. But personally, I'm happy. At least we
2020030	2031690	got six examples of technical specifications to revise, to review. Can you have the next slide,
2031690	2045290	please? About first measure. So, first measure is mainly not being able to deliver product,
2045290	2052230	hardware, software, etc. as a result of acts of God, weather, unforeseeable circumstances,
2052230	2063070	fire, war, anything you can imagine. As long as it's not, it's beyond the control of the party
2063070	2073720	that could not meet their duty or obligation to deliver such products. So, in the agreements,
2074290	2085240	we reviewed, only two vendors had first measure clause. And they state that
2085240	2096480	neither party shall be liable in case first measure things happen. But for the other two
2096480	2103400	vendors, it was a bit different. Because one vendor did not state, did not include a first
2103400	2113020	measure clause on its own. But under limitation of remedies, they said that the vendor assumes
2113020	2120340	no liabilities, no liability for delays as a result of acts of God, weather, unforeseeable
2120340	2132740	circumstances, etc. So, they included the first measure clause. They excluded themselves from
2132740	2140760	liability, but the clause doesn't say anything about the customer. The first vendor, though,
2140760	2148880	included a first measure clause under another clause, which is defects due to customer actions
2148880	2158460	or omissions. And in this case, they actually state that the customer shall pay for any loss
2159660	2168400	caused by acts of God, fire, flooding, riots, acts of war, etc. So, they are making the customer
2168400	2176140	liable, which is a peril to the customer. This is about first measure. Next, please.
2177620	2186400	Next is the indemnification clause. So, an indemnity clause is a contractual transfer of risk
2186400	2193600	between two contractual parties, generally to prevent loss or compensate for a loss,
2193600	2203240	which may occur as a result of specified events. Here, in the agreement, we had only two vendors
2203240	2211400	have included indemnification clauses, but the other two vendors remained silent on the matter,
2212400	2220200	which means that in case such problems occur, the issue will have to be disputed.
2221260	2232540	Next, please. So, limitation of liability. Here, I provided three sample clauses of
2233440	2239280	the limitation of liability clauses we found in the various agreements we had.
2242020	2250260	So, two vendors limit the liability for the company only.
2251000	2255720	And two vendors limit the liability for both parties.
2257420	2264040	And all companies, for all companies, the liability, they state that the liability
2264040	2269740	shall in no event exceed the total amount of the agreement.
2269740	2276180	And two vendors stated that the limitation of liability clause does not limit the indemnification
2276180	2290280	obligation. Next, please. About the license and use. So, all companies state that they
2290280	2297380	have to grant the customer a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the system
2297380	2307400	they provided them with. And they only can use it with a licensed software on licenses we have in
2307400	2316280	the course of operating the equipment and solely for the purposes of the elections. Any other use
2316280	2323480	would be considered breach of contract and the companies assert sole rights in the software.
2323850	2330320	And certain companies included in their agreement that reverse engineering, so,
2330320	2339860	they were more specified, specific, and they said reverse engineering, reengineering, duplicating
2339860	2351640	the source code or any other thing to replicate the source code is prohibited. Which is under
2351640	2359580	the terms of a license. About the warranties. So, the companies warrant that the software
2359580	2365880	they are providing is original and will operate in substantial performance and that the hardware
2365880	2376920	is free from defects. Three vendors warranted hardware between one year and five years. So,
2376920	2383710	there is a variation there. And, of course, a vendor did not specify the duration.
2384900	2392100	Which can be interpreted that they will be warranted for life. And that's not good for
2392100	2404720	the companies. But that's just a preliminary reading. So, what they warrant is that the
2404720	2416660	warranty is to fix or replace the defective hardware or malware. About the updates and
2416660	2425340	upgrades. Here, if you follow with me the language, some vendors say that they may provide
2425340	2432760	new releases, upgrades, updates, et cetera. And other vendors say they will make certified
2432760	2441060	software upgrades available. So, for certain companies, they are not required or obligated
2441060	2450960	to make upgrades to their systems. And here is a problem. If they're not updating their systems,
2450960	2458360	they can make new systems and then the counties will have to buy the new systems because their
2458360	2470000	old systems are no longer okay to run. So, this obligation versus possibility dilemma,
2470000	2479980	there it exists. Next, please. So, here's all the information I wanted to share with you about
2479980	2486940	the project, about the process, and about preliminary reading of the agreement. And
2486940	2491220	please, if you have any questions, just give them to me.
2491960	2497440	So, it looks like... well, before we continue, we would like to thank our speaker again for giving
2497440	2502940	us this awesome talk. It's actually kind of interesting how... a little sketchy how it is
2502940	2508140	with some of these devices and some of the manufacturers. A little eye-opening, I would say.
2508780	2514180	But it looks like we have a talk in the channel that says, how many different vendors did you
2514180	2525460	see in total? In total, we had four. So, as I told you, out of 67 counties, only 44 provided us