Schedule & Reading List Fall 2026
The schedule and readings are subject to change. Please check back frequently.
Part 1. The Election Cybersecurity Landscape
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Friday, Sep. 4
HALDERMAN
Week 1: Cybersecurity Threats to U.S. Elections
Introductions and overview of the course The security mindset Is U.S. election infrastructure secure? How has the election security landscape changed since 2016? How can we, as a class, help? |
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Friday, Sep. 11
HALDERMAN
Week 2: Voting as a Security Problem
Election security requirements and trade-offs Evolution of voting technology and election fraud The rise of electronic voting Security investigations in 2016 and 2020 ● Nat’l Acads. of Scis., Eng’g & Med., Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy (2018), Chapters 1–7
● Halderman, The Antrim County 2020 Election Incident: An Independent Forensic Investigation (2022)
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Friday, Sep. 18
HALDERMAN
Week 3: Computers at the Polls
Vulnerabilities in U.S. voting machines Electronic voting around the world Architecture and election security Diebold DRE demonstration ● Calandrino et al., Source Code Review of the Diebold Voting System (2007)
● Wolchok et al., Security Analysis of India’s Electronic Voting Machines (2010)
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Friday, Sep. 25
HALDERMAN
Week 4: Election Procedures and Threats
Voter registration and authentication Tabulation and reporting Physical controls Logic and accuracy testing Parallel testing Post-election audits ● Appel, Security Seals on Voting Machines: A Case Study (2011)
● Crimmins et al., Improving the Security of United States Elections with Robust Optimization (2023), Sections 1–2
● MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Election Return Reporting (2026)
HW1: Thinking like an Election Official available
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Friday, Oct. 2
HALDERMAN
Week 5: Producing Verifiable Paper Records
Voter-verified and voter-verifiable paper records BMD usability BMD security risks Accessibility and usability guidelines Emerging assistive technologies ● Bernhard et al., Can Voters Detect Malicious Manipulation of Ballot Marking Devices? (2020)
● Halderman and Springall, Security Analysis of Georgia’s ImageCast X Ballot Marking Devices (2021)
● Center for Civic Design, Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent, Volumes 1–10
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Friday, Oct. 9
CRIMMINS/HALDERMAN
Week 6: Ballot Secrecy, Disclosure, and Remediation
Ballot secrecy risks and attacks Coordinated disclosure and its limits Who are the stakeholders in an election vulnerability? Remediation under election-calendar constraints Case study: disclosing and mitigating DVSorder ● Crimmins et al., DVSorder: Ballot Randomization Flaws Threaten Voter Privacy (2024)
● CISA, Election Report (declassified 2026)
HW1: Thinking like an Election Official due 6 p.m.
HW2: Flawed Ballot Randomization available
Project topics available
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Friday, Oct. 16
No class
Project preferences due at 6 p.m.
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Part 2. Election Security and Public Policy
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Friday, Oct. 23
CRIMMINS
Week 7: Federal and State Policy
Federalism and Election Policy HAVA, the EAC and VVSG 2.0 Survey of state practices Elections in Michigan, recent changes ● U.S. EAC, Voluntary Voting System Guidelines VVSG 2.0 (2021)
● 52 U.S.C. §21081, Voting Systems Standards
● Crimmins, The Forgotten Paper Record Requirement of the Help America Vote Act (2026)
HW2: Flawed Ballot Randomization due 6 p.m.
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Friday, Oct. 30
HALDERMAN
Week 8: Risk-Limiting Audits
Special guest: Dr. Vanessa Teague, Verified Voting Foundation Board of Advisors Requirements and goals for an RLA RLA technologies: ballot and batch, comparison and polling ● Appel and Stark, Evidence-Based Elections: Create a Meaningful Paper Trail, Then Audit (2020)
● Stark, When Audits and Recounts Distract from Election Integrity (2024)
HW3: Risk-Limiting Audits available
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Friday, Nov. 6
HALDERMAN
Week 9: What happened on Election Day? / Nation-State Threats to Elections
I.C. Threat Assessments Information Warfare Nation-State Attacks ● SSCI Russia Report, Report on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election (2020), Volume 1
● Nat’l Intelligence Council, Vulnerabilities in US 2020 Election Infrastructure (2020, declassified 2026)
● NSA, Internal Email Thread on Election Threat Reporting (declassified 2026)
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Part 3. Future Prospects for Securing Elections
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Friday, Nov. 13
CRIMMINS
Week 10: End-to-end Verification
Special guest: Dr. Josh Benaloh, Microsoft Research Cryptographic approaches to securing elections Protocols and properties Open problems and challenges ● Benaloh et al., End-to-End Verifiability (2014)
● Benaloh et al., ElectionGuard: A Cryptographic Toolkit to Enable Verifiable Elections (2024)
● Benaloh, STROBE-Voting: Send Two, Receive One Ballot Encoding (2021)
● Kim et al., Haechi: Simple Commitment-based Keyless In-person Verifiable Elections (2026), Sections 1, 2, and 4
HW3: Risk-Limiting Audits due 6 p.m.
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Friday, Nov. 20
HALDERMAN
Week 11: Elections and Local Government
● Skoglund, Declaration re Coffee County (2022)
Project checkpoint due at 6 p.m.
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Friday, Nov. 27
Thanksgiving Break
No class |
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Friday, Dec. 4
HALDERMAN
Week 12: Internet Voting
Challenges for online voting Case studies: D.C., Estonia, Australia Blockchain? ● Choose one of the following system analyses: Wolchok et al., Attacking the Washington, D.C. Internet Voting System (2012); Specter et al., Security Analysis of Voatz (2020); or Specter and Halderman, Security Analysis of the Democracy Live Online Voting System (2021)
● Berkeley Center for Security in Politics Working Group, Statement on Developing Standards for Internet Ballot Return (2022)
● Parks, The Push for Internet Voting Continues, Mostly Thanks to One Guy (2021), paired with Wood, Creators of the New and Open-Source VoteSecure Say Mobile Voting Is Finally Ready (2025)
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Friday, Dec. 11
HALDERMAN
Week 13: Project Presentations
Each group will present their project in class Dec. 14 — Project final reports due at 6 p.m.
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