Question #5: Sen. Walker's Response

While Oregon requires voting machines to go through the voluntary federal certification process under HAVA as well as an independent contractor review, that certification only addresses error rates and accuracy requirements. There are no federal certification standards to test malicious code in software programs.

Additionally, Oregon requires all voting machines to go through a logic and acceptance (or logic and accuracy) exam before each election to ensure the ballots are properly loaded into the system, and that sample ballots are run through the equipment and counted to ensure accuracy.

However, as illustrated by the problem in Jackson County that I spoke about earlier, that L&A exam does not guarantee an error-free election. I would support the creation of a state Technical Oversight Committee to make recommendations on increasing the security of Oregon’s vote counting and tabulation system.