A Diebold voting demonstration
I realize that this would have been more timely before the election, but I’ve come across a very good demonstration of how Diebold voting machines can be compromised without leaving any evidence behind. Seeing this stuff makes it seem much more real than reading about it.
and one more reminder to not trust Wikipedia more than you’d trust a friend of an acquaintance: the entry on Jim Sensenbrenner has had its “controversy” section removed. There is now no mention that Sensenbrenner introduced the controversial PATRIOT and Real ID Acts, nor is there a mention of his travel budget, which is paid for by special interests (against congressional rules) and is the largest of any Congressperson. edit: upon closer reading, these things are sprinkled in among the other sections in the page, but are not as easily accessible as they had been. So remember: don’t trust Wikipedia to be either correct or unbiased, any more than you’d trust anyone you’ve just met. Edit: and don’t trust the pages to keep the same format they have now.
That’s kind of scary. Except couldn’t all the computers just be told to run a fake election and then told the election is over. Then the virus would delete itself according to the video. Seems like a pretty major flaw in the voting system to me.
Is the Diebold voting system standard now? I didn’t vote this year because I’m in Mass. In 2004 I voted with a paper card thing. I think I used a Diebold during the CA recall election though.
If the practices for e-voting are codified (so that all election officials use them the same way), it appears that there isn’t a way to stop these viruses. If nothing else, you could probably make a virus that does nothing for any election lasting less than 10 minutes, and then springs into action and retroactively changes votes. If the machines have clocks in them (I would be surprised if they don’t), you could have the virus only run on election day between the hours of, say, 10 till closing.
Electronic voting may or may not be standard depending on where you vote. Here in Los Angeles, I voted using a very smooth and efficient system that seemed like a cross between a scantron and a hanging chad system (here’s a picture). You slide a sheet of paper with the scantron bubbles in the back and lock it into place, and when you flip the pages of cadidates you expose different columns of bubbles. You get a tool about the size of a pen, except that the tip is a round blade with a recessed marker in it. To get the marker to ink the ballot, you need to push hard enough that the blade definitely cuts out the bubble (and then you get ink on the edges that you just cut). It worked really well, leaves a voter-verified paper trail, and can still be tallied by scantron.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been fighting Diebold machines in several states, and has gotten them kicked out of North Carolina and trying to do something similar in Ohio. But I fear these machines are becoming more and more popular. California has some good laws in place to ensure votes are counted correctly. I don’t know about Massechusetts.