Clint Curtis touched a hidden button on the screen of a simulated electronic voting machine as onlookers witnessed votes switch from one candidate to another.
The House Committee on Elections invited Curtis, a computer programmer from Florida, to testify Wednesday on the accuracy, risks, benefits and security of electronic voting technology. The committee also heard from other expert witnesses, election officials and the Texas secretary of state.
Curtis said a Florida representative approached him in 2000 to design "vote-flipping" software to help the congressman win an election. Requesting a fraudulent program for a machine is not illegal in Florida, but using one is.
"You cannot trust electronic machines, no matter how many honest people you have. It only takes one person with access to the machine," said Curtis, an advocate for hand-counted paper ballots. "Programmers can be bought."
The committee watched as Curtis clicked on an invisible button that suddenly placed the losing candidate of his mock election safely in the lead.
"24 lines of code can flip an election," Curtis said.
He offered to write a new code from scratch in less than three minutes, emphasizing the ease of creating a "flipping" code.
Jay Dyer, general counsel for Texas' Office of the Secretary of State, spoke to the committee about the series of tests that comprise the certification process the office uses to minimize security risks.
"It is important to appreciate what it means for a system to be certified," Dyer said.
He said that as long as protocol is followed, electronic machines minimize risk by eliminating human error.
Machine errors reported during the March primaries were "low tech" and were created by voter turnout that was higher than usual, Dyer said.
In an effort to minimize security risk, the Office of the Secretary of State is conducting training and awareness programs for local election officials.
"Despite all the technological devices, elections remain a human endeavor," Dyer said.
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