An open invitation to election fraud
Not only is the country's leading touch-screen voting system so badly designed that votes can be easily changed, but its manufacturer is run by a die-hard GOP donor who vowed to deliver his state for Bush next year.

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By Farhad Manjoo

Sept. 23, 2003 | As if the public image of punch-card voting machines had not already been bruised and battered enough, on Sept. 15, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals went for the K.O. Punch-card voting, a three-judge panel of the court said in its ruling halting the California gubernatorial recall election, is an embarrassment to our high-tech times: "Just as the black and white fava bean voting system of revolutionary times was replaced by paper balloting, and the paper ballot replaced by mechanical lever machine, newer technologies have emerged to replace the punch-card, including optical scanning and touch screen voting."

But according to Bev Harris, a writer who has spent more than a year investigating the shadowy world of the elections equipment industry, the replacement technologies the court cited may be worse -- much worse -- than the zany punch-card systems it finds so abhorrent. Specifically, Harris' research into Diebold, one of the largest providers of the new touch-screen systems, ought to give elections officials pause about mandating an all-electronic vote.

Harris has found critical flaws in Diebold's voting software, and she's uncovered internal Diebold memos in which employees seem to suggest that the vulnerabilities are no big deal. The memos appear to be authentic -- Diebold even sent Harris a notice warning her that by posting the documents on the Web, she was infringing upon the company's intellectual property. Diebold did not return several calls for comment.

The problems Harris found in Diebold's system are perhaps the best proof yet that electronic voting systems aren't ready for prime time. Indeed, the vulnerabilities in the software, as well as the internal memos, raise questions about the legitimacy of the California recall election. In its ruling, the 9th Circuit Court put the election on hold until the six counties that currently use punch-card systems -- six counties that comprise 44 percent of the state's voters -- upgrade their systems. On Monday, 11 judges on the 9th Circuit reheard the recall case; they may very well overturn the decision halting the Oct. 7 election. If the recall vote is put on hold until March, however, many may wonder whether to trust the results: Four of the six punch-card counties -- including the largest, Los Angeles and San Diego -- have plans to upgrade to Diebold machines by March.

<font color=deepskyblue>Maybe I'm missing something here, but I saw two "critical flaws" with the article itself.

First of all, it says the reporter discovered critical flaws in the software used by DieBold and also found internal memos "that appear to be authentic" that say these vulnerabilities were not of great concern.....yet the article never mentions exactly WHAT these critical flaws are!!!!

And I also don't see how these "critical flaws" could be inherently designed to favor the Republican party simply because the manufacture is a GOP supporter. Again, as I said, I may be missing something.

I would be interested to find out exactly what these "critical flaws" are? And what did they mean by the comment that "votes can be easily changed"? Are they worried that election officials could actually go in after the polls close and tamper with the results? If so, that still isn't a flaw that inherently favors Repubs, since there are just as many districts that are primarily Demo and it stands to reason that officials there could skew the results in their favor also.

Interesting article, but the points raised definitely require further investigation, IMHO.</font>

I'm with Cerek. What ARE the critical flaws man?

If you do not find this: a huge flaw then I don't knwo what else to say...


In another article I read that one of the flaws was that the results were being sent by unsecured FTP on an hourly basis. Allowing them to be intercepted, or just simply read from the FTP directory. This could give a campiagn critical information on what precints to target extra get out the vote workers to boast turnout.

If you do not find this:

Quote:

Harris has discovered that Diebold's voting software is so flawed that anyone with access to the system's computer can change the votes without leaving any record.

a huge flaw then I don't knwo what else to say...
</font>[/QUOTE]<font color=deepskyblue>Since that particular quote was not included in your original post nor in the surface text provided by your link, I suppose you could say "I see why you would ask that." ;)

I looked back over the opening post twice to make sure that I hadn't overlooked that particular quote. Unless I've gone completely blind, it isn't there. I also followed the link you provided and it gave the same text as your opening post. It did offer an opportunity to read more details of the story if I wanted to become a subscriber - which I did not.


I do agree that IS a critical flaw and definitely is cause for concern. But I still don't see that it is an inherent plot of the Diebold to aid the GOP, since anybody from either party could tamper with the results without being traced. I agree it is an open invitation to election fraud, but I still think the opportunity to commit the fraud is equal for both sides.</font>

[ 09-30-2003, 12:24 PM: Message edited by: Cerek the Barbaric ]

The way Salon works now is you can get a free 'Day Pass' to read all the content by viewing a short comerical via the link at the bottom of the page the article is on.

It is a cause for concern when the man the owns and runs the company that makes the machines not only has told Bush "I guarantee you will win" but also on of Bush's big donors and fundraisers. Just last weekend he hosted a fundraiser that netted over $100,000

This is all just Dem hype. Make a list of proven GOP vote fraud and compare it to a list of Dem fraud and you'll see who we really have to worry about tampering with votes.

<Font color=orange>In looking at the Democratic side, all you would have to do is go to Chicago and look at all the vote fraud that has gone there for all these years. That would dwarf all the Republican fraud you could find all over the country since the founding of the Republican Party!

[ 10-01-2003, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: Sir Taliesin ]

It is a cause for concern when the man the owns and runs the company that makes the machines not only has told Bush "I guarantee you will win" but also on of Bush's big donors and fundraisers. Just last weekend he hosted a fundraiser that netted over $100,000 </font>[/QUOTE]<font color=deepskyblue>I'll grant you that. It is definitely cause for concern - and especially for the reasons you listed. I'm just pointing out that there is nothing to keep the Demo's from taking advantage of this security flaw also to swing an equal number of votes their way.

Still, with the promise made by the owner and manufacturer of the company, the vulnerabilities of the software should be eliminated and extra security measures installed to prevent anybody hacking into the system. Perhaps they should even contact a different firm to make the patch for the software to prevent Diebold from leaving a hidden back door in the package.

Thanks for providing the extra information, <font color=coral>Rokenn</font>. I wasn't try to be difficult, it's just that they original post simply didn't give enough detailed information to fully understand the risky potential this faulty software had. And - for once - we actually ended up agreeing on something here. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] </font>

[ 10-01-2003, 02:43 PM: Message edited by: Cerek the Barbaric ]