Threat Analysis on UOCAVA Voting Sytems

摘要

Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) In 1986, Congress enacted UOCAVA, which states that U.S. citizens that are part of the uniformed services, merchant marines, and their families or citizens residing overseas are allowed to register and vote absentee for Federal office. Additionally, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires the EAC to study overseas voting, including methods for sending balloting materials to overseas voters (28). Most states have their own legislation covering how UOCAVA citizens register and vote. Overseas voting is treated by most jurisdictions as absentee voting, applying the same procedures (e.g., deadlines for requesting absentee ballots and returning completed ballots) as for an absentee voter within the United States. UOCAVA voting generally relies upon postal and military mail as the mechanism to distribute and receive election materials, but inherent delays in the delivery times to citizens overseas plus legislated windows of time between finalization of ballots and the election can result in UOCAVA voters being unable to participate in elections. This report therefore examines electronic transmission options (telephone, fax, e-mail, web) for UOCAVA voting that are in limited use or have been proposed as methods for improving UOCAVA voting, and analyzes the security-related threats to these transmission options. This report presents initial conclusions regarding the use of these electronic technologies and suggested next steps.