Reflections on TTBR & Everest
Bowen, Blaze, Clark, Hoke, Mulligan
Voting Village @ DEF CON 33 · Day 1 · Voting Village
This panel discussion, "Reflections on TTBR & Everest," brings together key figures involved in two groundbreaking, independent security reviews of electronic voting systems: the **California Top-to-Bottom Review (TTBR)** and the **Ohio Everest study**. The talk delves into the historical context, technical challenges, and political battles that defined these pioneering efforts to scrutinize the security and integrity of election technology in the mid-2000s. Led by cybersecurity expert Matt Blaze, with contributions from Candace Hoke, Sandy Clark, Deirdre Mulligan, and a nod to the visionary leadership of then-California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen, the discussion provides a candid look at how technologists gained unprecedented access to voting system source code and hardware, and the profound vulnerabilities they uncovered.
AI review
A historically significant panel with real principals who did real work, but this is a retrospective — not new research. The war stories are honest and the policy battle over Ohio's NDA demands is genuinely compelling, but the technical content being surfaced is 15+ years old and mostly already in the public record.