The Election Verification Network gave 3 awards last night to individuals working on important areas relating to election reform and election administration.

The first person was Professor J. Alex Halderman at the University of Michigan. He is a computer scientists who demonstrated the first (known) voting machine virus and recently with his students participated in a public trial of an Internet voting system fielded in Washington, D.C.  His team was able to take control of the servers and change every vote within 36 hours.

The second person is Professor Philip B. Stark at the University of California Berkeley. He is known for his work on post eleciton audit standards and developed the notion of “risk-limiting audits.” In collaboration with election officials, he conducted the first six risk-limiting audits and helped draft California AB 2023, which requires a pilot of risk-limiting audits.

The third person is Jennie Bretschneider, Assistant Chief Deputy and Counsel, California Secretary of State. She was the lead staffer on the 2007 Post-Election Audit Standards Working Group, which was instrumental in paving the way for risk-limiting audits and subsequent legislation for a pilot project of small-batch and ballot-level risk-limiting audits.

Congratulations!