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VotingNews Brief #69: National Association of Secretaries of State disassociates itself from any involvement in the SERVE controversy

St. Paul, Minnesota
January 28, 2004

By Marc Strassman
Voting Technology Reporter
The Latest VotingNews

From "Wernher von Braun," by Tom Lehrer:

"Once the rocket goes up, where does it come down?
That's not my problem, says Werner von Braun."

NASS is the acronym for the National Association of Secretaries of State. It's unclear how exactly it differs from NASED, the National Association of State Election Directors, since almost every state secretary of state is also that state's chief election office, and vice versa.

It is clear, however, that anyone trying to find out anything about elections or about SERVE or about the controversy surrounding SERVE by trying to contact NASED is going to have to try doing so somewhere else.

Since, as mentioned above, the memberships of NASED and NASS are almost identical, talking to NASS about the impact that using the Pentagon's uncertified, uncertifiable and, according to a recent report, insecure and insecurable remote voting system for domestic voting might have seems like a reasonable thing to do.

After several attempts to do so, this reporter managed to pose that question to Kent Kaiser, spokesperson for Mary Kiffmeyer, Minnesota's Secretary of State and currently the President of NASS. Mr. Kaiser looked into the matter and then told the Latest VotingNews that:

"I don't think we have any comment. We're not participants."

A recent article on the BizReport web site refers to expanding SERVE's usage into domestic jurisdictions

"If successful, SERVE - an acronym for Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment - could be adapted domestically to help boost turnout among other disenfranchised groups, ranging from the elderly to college students."

Asked about NASS President Kiffmeyer's willingness to comment about this development, which would clearly impact elections in all 50 states, elections under the direct supervision of NASS's members, Mr. Kaiser said:

"I guess she'll comment then."

It's good to know that the organization of election officials which did so much to prevent the electoral debacle in Florida in 2000 and make necessary the elevation to the presidency of the candidate with the second most votes nationwide are still ahead of the curve when it comes to voting technology. Their pro-active stance on this issue should allow us to rest easy in coming years, secure in the knowledge that they are vigilantly and preemptively looking out for our interests.