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or potential vulnerabilities by any person, including, among others, machine vendors, election officials,and voters. Vendor reporting of such problems should be mandatory. Reporting from others shouldbe permissive. Additionally, while voters, election officials, and others should be able to simply uploadtheir reports to the database via the Internet (subject to review by the appropriate agency), vendors wouldbe required to both upload the reports to the database via the Internet and send the reports to theappropriate government agency via certified mail.As already discussed (supra p. 25), given their ongoing reliance on voting system vendors to repair andservice their systems, election officials should have the option of filing reports confidentially, meaningthey can request no individuals except other election officials know their identity. This would encouragemore honest and timely reporting by those most likely to observe voting system malfunctions.a searchable, central database could“serve as a repository to let me knowwhat issues exist with the machine,rather than having to rely on whatSimilarly, it makes sense to provide whistleblowersworking for voting machine companies and/or stateand local governments with the option of requestingthat personal information be kept confidential. Toensure confidentiality, Congress would probablyhave to provide a FOIA exemption for reports filedby election officials. 201the vendors spoon-feed me.”A searchable database would have benefits beyondthe issuance of “advisories” to customers upon arokey suleman, executive director of problem’s discovery. In part because of high turnoveramong election officials, such advisories can get lostthe district of columbia’s board offrom election to election (see, e.g., the Humboldtelections and ethicsCounty, California case study discussed supra pp.12 - 13). Moreover, officials looking to purchase ordeploy new systems will not necessarily have easyaccess to advisories issued by a vendor or the EAC (in the case of EAC certified systems) in the recentor distant past. By making it simple for election officials and the public to search for problems andworkarounds associated with voting systems at any time, a well designed database could increase thelikelihood that jurisdictions looking to use new machines would learn about potential problems beforepurchase or use.A. Provision DetailsA bill or new regulations addressing this issue should set specific requirements for reports, including:(1) a description of the make and model of the voting machine involved; 202 (2) the jurisdiction(s) inwhich the machine is being used, if applicable; (3) a description of the nature of the problem or concernwith the machine; (4) the date of the discovery of the problem or concern; (5) the name and contactinformation for the person submitting the report; (6) a verification by the person submitting the reportthat the information submitted is true and accurate and that the person consents to such informationbeing included in the database; (7) versions of hardware, software, and firmware affected; and (8) anysuggested workarounds and fixes, or instructions for how to retrieve this information when it becomesavailable.28 | Brennan Center for Justice