Course Schedule Fall 2024

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

Part 1. The Election Cybersecurity Landscape
Aug. 26
Week 1: 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?
●  NASEM, Securing the Vote (2018), Chapters 1–3
Sep. 2
Labor Day
No class
Sep. 9
Week 2: 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. 16
Week 3: Computers at the Polls
Vulnerabilities in U.S. voting machines;
Electronic voting around the world;
Architecture and election security
Sep. 23
Week 4: Election Procedures and Threats
Voter registration and authentication;
Tabulation and reporting;
Physical controls;
Logic and accuracy testing, parallel testing;
Post-election audits
Sep. 30
Week 5: TK
TK
Oct. 7
Week 6: Evidence-Based Elections: Risk-Limiting Audits
Requirements and goals for an RLA;
RLA technologies: ballot and batch, comparison and polling
Oct. 14
Week 7: Usability and Accessibility
Accessibility and usability guidelines
Ballot marking devices and verification
Emerging assistive technologies
Oct. 21
Fall break
No class
Oct. 28
Week 8: Information Warfare and Elections
Social media manipulation;
Hacks against political campaigns;
Attacking voter confidence;
Security best practices
Part 2. Election Security and Public Policy
Nov. 4
Week 9: 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. 11
Week 10: 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
Nov. 18
Week 11: Internet Voting
Vote-by-mail and UOCAVA settings
Challenges for online voting
Case studies: D.C., Estonia, Australia
Blockchain?
Nov. 25
Week 12: End-to-end Verification
Cryptographic approaches to securing elections;
Protocols and properties
Open problems and challenges
Dec. 2
Week 13: TK
TK
Dec. 9
Week 14: Project Presentations
Each group will present their project in class
Project write-up   Due Thursday, December 12