Over the last two decades, public discussion surrounding elections in the United States has raised broad concerns about the security, fairness and integrity of the processes by which government representatives are selected. Such concerns have intensified as changes to the regulatory structures, voting equipment and procedures have introduced new opportunities for vote manipulation and often reduce the transparency of election processes. The United States is in a unique position in history that requires renewed introspection about public elections, their safety and the basic fairness and accessibility of the election process.
The Penn State College of Engineering, Penn State Law, and the Penn State School of International Affairs working jointly with the Penn State Institute for Networking and Security Research and the Institute for CyberScience are hosting the Symposium on Election Security in University Park, Pa on December 3, 2018. This meeting will bring the public together with members of the election, technical security and legislative communities to discuss the current state of election needs, practices and public policy. The program for this event is designed to allow for both a retrospective view of the November 2018 elections and recommendations for the 2020 election.
The program will include a number of informed speakers and panels discussing topics of interest related to U.S. elections. The program will provide opportunities for public discussion of key issues including election voting systems security; election procedures and best-practices; voter rights; and election public policy. Speakers and panelist will be asked to use the November 2018 election as a backdrop for these discussions and offer critiques and lessons learned as well as recommendations for future election cycles.
Conference organizers:
Patrick McDaniel, Weiss Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Penn State
Scott Gartner, Director, School of International Affairs, Penn State
Dmitri Mehlhorn, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Investing in US
Tamer Mokhtar, Partner, Investing in US
Adam Muchmore, Associate Dean for Research and Partnerships and Professor of Law, Penn State
Hari Osofsky, Dean, Penn State Law and School of International Affairs
Justin Schwartz, Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of Engineering, Penn State
Barbara Simons, IBM Research (retired) and Board Chair, Verified Voting
Institute for CyberScience