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1. Name: Davi Ottenheimer  
2. Title: Former Vice President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA)
3. Voting Machines
Position:		 Con to the question "Do electronic voting machines improve the voting process?"
4. Reasoning:

"I'd love to imagine that voting systems are built and managed in some independent and honest vaccum, but this is the land of opportunity. Besides that, treating voting systems as non-partisan would require overlooking that fact that the technology is deeply mired in very partisan affairs. Walden O'Dell, the Diebold Inc. CEO, was an avid Bush benefactor and even ran fund-raisers at his mansion asking for $10K donations to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund. More to the point, these funds supported Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State who just also happened to be in charge of selecting Diebold as the official voting machine. So after Diebold successfully lobbied Blackwell, Blackwell tried to use his sole control of $106 million in federal funds to force counties in Ohio to buy the Diebold voting systems against their wishes and without open vaildation of the new systems [...] Hope that helps clarify why there should be a great deal of uncertainty about the validity of these systems, especially with regard to their partisan origins." ("Comment," Schneier on Security Blog, June 30, 2005)

5. Credibility
Ranking:		  Experts
Election officials, people with post-graduate degrees in a computer or political science, J.D.s, Members of Congress, or elected officials with significant involvement in, or related to, electronic voting machine issues
6. Involvement:
  • Former Vice President, Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), Silicon Valley Chapter
  • Founder, Flyingpenguin blog, an internet security and poetry website
  • Director of Information Security, West Marine
  • Director of Information Technology and Security, University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC)
  • Director of Information Security, Synchron Networks
  • Independent Information Security Manager, Predictive Systems, Arthur Andersen, M&I Data Services, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Alliant Energy, Brady Corporation, Cisco, IBM, Intel, Marshall & Ilsley, Newell-Rubbermaid, Rational Software, State Farm, and Synopsis, 1994-2002
7. Education:
  • MSc, International History, London School of Economics, 1994
  • BA, Political Science and Philosophy, Macalester College, 1993
8. Relevant Affiliations/Honors:
  • Editor, "Electronic Poetry Review (EPR)," 1996-present
  • Member, information security communities including, SysAdmin, Audit, and Network and Security Institute (SANS)

9. Contact Info:
Phone: None found Fax: None found
E-Mail: Online contact form
Web Site: www.Flyingpenguin.com
10. Other: Select publications:
  • "A Comparative Analysis of x86 Operating System Security," Intel Corporation, 2001
  • "Securing Linux: Step-by-Step," SANS Institute, 2000
  • Cowritten with Jeremy Allaire, "The Public Domain," International Human Rights, 1992
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