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1. Name: Ronald L. Rivest, Ph.D.  
2. Title: Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

3. Voting Machines
Position:
No Stated Position to the question "Do electronic voting machines improve the voting process?"
4. Reasoning:

"Electronic voting systems offer improved ease-of-use and flexibility. They do not intrinsically offer improved security." (Testimony before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration, May 24, 2001)

5. Credibility
Ranking:
 Experts
Election officials, people with post-graduate degrees in a computer science, J.D.s, Members of Congress, or elected officials with significant involvement in, or related to, electronic voting machine issues

6. Involvement:
  • Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
  • Member, Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
  • Testified before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration about security in voting technology, May 24, 2001
  • Advisory Board, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
  • Former Director, International Association for Cryptologic Research and Financial Cryptography Association
7. Education:
  • Ph.D., Computer Science, Stanford University, 1974
  • B.A., Mathematics, Yale University, 1969
8. Relevant Affiliations/Honors:
  • Elected Member, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences
  • Elected Fellow, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM); International Association for Cryptographic Research; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and World Technology Network
  • 2005 - MITX Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 2002 - ACM Turing Award
  • 2000 - Co-recipient, IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award and Secure Computing Lifetime Achievement Award

9. Contact Info:
Phone: (617) 253-5880 Fax: (617) 258-9738
E-Mail: rivest(AT)mit.edu
Web Sitehttp://theory.csail.mit.edu/~rivest/homepage.html

10. Other: Select publications include:
  • "Preliminary Voting - Prevoting," to be included in larger Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project Report, 2005
  • "A Modular Voting Architecture ('Frogs')," S. Bruck, D. Jefferson, and R.L. Rivest, presented at WOTE Conference, 2001
  • "Electronic Voting," Proceedings of Financial Cryptography '01, 2001
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