Course Schedule Fall 2020

This schedule is subject to change. Please check back frequently.

Part 1. The Election Cybersecurity Landscape
Monday Seminar
Aug. 31
Cybersecurity Threats to U.S. Elections
Introductions and overview of the course;
What happened during the 2016 election?
What's been done since then to improve security?
How can we, as a class, help?
Sep. 7
Labor Day
No lecture
Sep. 14
Voting as a Security Problem
The security mindset;
Election security requirements and trade-offs;
Evolution of voting technology and election fraud;
The rise of electronic voting
Sep. 21
Computers at the Polls
Vulnerabilities in U.S. voting machines;
Electronic voting around the world;
Architecture and election security
Sep. 28
Election Procedures and Threats
Voter registration and authentication;
Tabulation and reporting;
Physical controls;
Logic and accuracy testing, parallel testing;
Post-election audits
Oct. 5
Evidence-Based Elections: Risk-Limiting Audits
Requirements and goals for an RLA;
RLA technologies: ballot and batch, comparison and polling
Oct. 12
Usability and Accessibility
Accessibility and usability guidelines
Ballot marking devices and verification
Emerging assistive technologies
Oct. 19
No lecture
Oct. 26
Information Warfare and Elections
Social media manipulation;
Hacks against political campaigns;
Attacking voter confidence;
Security best practices
Part 2. Election Security and Public Policy
Monday Seminar
Nov. 2
Federal and State Policy
Federalism and Election Policy;
HAVA, the EAC and VVSG 2.0;
Survey of state practices;
Elections in Michigan, recent changes
Nov. 9
What happened on Election Day? / Policy Reform
TBD / Prospects for reform in Congress: recent bills;
Prospects for reform through the Courts: recent lawsuits
Part 3. Future Prospects for Securing Elections
Monday Seminar
Nov. 16
Internet Voting
Vote-by-mail and UOCAVA settings
Challenges for online voting
Case studies: D.C., Estonia, Australia
Blockchain?
Nov. 23
Thanksgiving Break
No lecture
Nov. 30
End-to-end Verification
Cryptographic approaches to securing elections;
Protocols and properties
Open problems and challenges
Dec. 7
Project Presentations
Each group will present their project in class
Project write-up   Due Friday, December 11