According to a NYTimes report, the federal Election Assistance Commission decertified Coloroado-based Ciber, one of the main electronic voting machine test labs, last summer, but only just got around to telling people.

Experts say the deficiencies of the laboratory suggest that crucial features like the vote-counting software and security against hacking may not have been thoroughly tested on many machines now in use.

“What’s scary is that we’ve been using systems in elections that Ciber had certified, and this calls into question those systems that they tested,” said Aviel D. Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins. — via the New York Times

Rubin quite logically suggests that a better testing method would be to hire teams of hackers. (Me, I'd like to see EFF hackers with a civil-rights focus and a case of Jolt cola have at these puppies.) Right now, there's an odd relationship between manufacturers and testers that makes me queasy. If we're voting on these things, all tests should be conducted to strict, public standards and the results should be completely transparent. And, it goes without saying, we need a paper trail.