Could PCI Could Stem Voter Fraud?

It could happen if a report out of Ohio is any indication. Came upon this interesting post over at the TreasuryInstitute's blog on yet another use for PCI standards. They point to an interesting study (download here) that used PCI DSS as a benchmark to assess the integrity of voting systems in Ohio.

A team of computer scientists were commissioned by the Ohio Secretary of State to "assess the reliability, accessibility, and security of electronic voting systems used in Ohio." The team compared systems against a common baseline of information security practices -- in this case PCI DSS -- to determine the security risk in voting systems used in the state. The report notes that "The framework was originally designed to be applied to credit card processing systems, but easily extends itself to any form or critical data." It makes sense.

Ohio has long been considered a state crucial in the outcome of past presidential elections and voter fraud in that state has been a hot topic As a result of the security assessment, Jennifer Brunner, Ohio’s secretary of state, has said that voting system in Ohio is insecure and is proposing to replace all the states’ voting machines with optical-scan machines for a more secure and clear audit trail.