Registration is the first step to allowing all eligible voters to cast their votes and select their government leaders. How do new voters register? How is the list maintained? What are the threats/risks/vulnerabilities in our current processes?
Voters in Texas can register through the Department of Motor Vehicles or with their respective County Election Office wither in person or through a VDR????. That can be the County Clerk or in most cases an Election Administrator (EA) appointed by the County Commissioner’s Court. Voter registration drives may be held at certain events/locations to encourage unregistered eligible voters to register.
Once an voter registration application is received, it is forwarded to the TX Secretary of State Office for validation. The voter must provide either the last 4 of their Social Security Number (SSN) or their Driver’s License (DL) number. If a DL number is supplied, SOS should check with the TX Department of Public Safety to verify voter information. If a SSN is given, the information is sent off to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Associations (AAMVA), a non-government organization to verify voter information.
Logic and accuracy tests are designed to ensure election computers are running the correct version of software that has been certified by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Texas Secretary of State (SOS). This is accomplished through a HASH validation. A HASH validation performs a mathematical operation on a computer file, multiple files, or a specific directory. The result of this complex operation is a very large (usually over 2,000 bits) that uniquely identifies the target file(s). If any one bit of the computer file is changed, the resulting HASH number will be different. A valid “HASH” is provided by the EAC when the software is certified and the 2 numbers are compared to confirm the correct software is loaded onto the computer.