Will your votes count in 2006?

[Makalakumu]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12888600/site/newsweek/

May 29, 2006 issue - Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the voting booth, here comes more disturbing news about the trustworthiness of electronic touchscreen ballot machines. Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. Hursti found unheralded vulnerabilities in the machines that are currently entrusted to faithfully record the votes of millions of Americans.

How bad are the problems? Experts are calling them the most serious voting-machine flaws ever documented. Basically the trouble stems from the ease with which the machine's software can be altered. It requires only a few minutes of pre-election access to a Diebold machine to open the machine and insert a PC card that, if it contained malicious code, could reprogram the machine to give control to the violator. The machine could go dead on Election Day or throw votes to the wrong candidate. Worse, it's even possible for such ballot-tampering software to trick authorized technicians into thinking that everything is working fine, an illusion you couldn't pull off with pre-electronic systems. "If Diebold had set out to build a system as insecure as they possibly could, this would be it," says Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University computer-science professor and elections-security expert.

Thoughts?

 

[Cryozombie]

Give us access to any machine, any software, any code, and we can find a way to hack, crack, or modify it... thats the nature of such devices.

Tamper with a paper ballot... discount them because of hanging chads, tamper with an electronic machine, fake votes, votes from dead people, whatever... If the electronic machines were kept Secure enough by people who had no REASON to allow them to be tampered with to add extra hardware containing modified code, they wouldnt be an issue.

That said, the issue, IMO isnt the equipment, you can tamper with ANYTHING... its the corruption in the system in the first place.

 

[Bigshadow]

I am with Technopunk on this.

 

[Kacey]

I agree with TechnoPunk too - the machinery may be too accessible/easy to modify, but the fault lies with the people who are allowed inappropriate access... which means closer control must occur at the polls, as well as the storage facility for the voting machines.

 

[tkd_jen]

Does anyone else have a problem with the whole electorate vote system? I think it makes no sense, I believe whoever gets the most votes wins. I remember learning about it in school and I actually thought my teacher was joking.

 

[heretic888]

Does anyone else have a problem with the whole electorate vote system? I think it makes no sense, I believe whoever gets the most votes wins. I remember learning about it in school and I actually thought my teacher was joking.

Ahem.

 

[mrhnau]

Ahem.

I absolutely agree with that one. There is a reason it exists, and is still appropriate today.

 

[TonyMac]

In your opinion.

 

[mrhnau]

In your opinion.

And the founding fathers.

 

[tkd_jen]

Interesting, the reason I bring it up is because it seems to be a much discussed topic in smaller states such as mine (ND). Many young people state the reason they don't vote is because they feel it "won't matter anyway," referring to the electoral collage. If this is true or not, who knows. Maybe they are just too lazy to go to the polls and make this up as an excuse? ND is a weird state politically because our representatives are all Democrat but in the Presidential elections we always go red. I appreciate your response heretic888, well spoken. History has made it's case for the collage statistically speaking.

 

[MA-Caver]

The voting machines, paper or electronic aren't corrupt... it's the humans that are. Until there is a good soild foolproof way to ensure that there are HONEST people counting HONEST ballots/votes the system will always have some form (however large or small) throwing a wrench in the works.


Never felt right about those dead people voting in Florida.

 

[mrhnau]

Never felt right about those dead people voting in Florida.

or about trying not to count military votes in Florida either

 

[Stealth]

or about trying not to count military votes in Florida either

We here in Florida have problems...

I prefer the hanging chads over a system that can be totally tampered with electronically.

 

[mrhnau]

We here in Florida have problems...

I prefer the hanging chads over a system that can be totally tampered with electronically.

I think it can be done properly, but you better be darn careful. I'm not sure how you can keep it absolutely foolproof, with no thought of tampering/hacking or any hint of bias by either side. You are always going to have someone complain about some form of bias.

Then again, I don't want to have other countries come and "validate" and inspect our election like we have had Jimmy Carter do in a few international elections.... I don't think we have fallen to that yet.

 

[Stealth]

I think it can be done properly, but you better be darn careful. I'm not sure how you can keep it absolutely foolproof, with no thought of tampering/hacking or any hint of bias by either side. You are always going to have someone complain about some form of bias.

Then again, I don't want to have other countries come and "validate" and inspect our election like we have had Jimmy Carter do in a few international elections.... I don't think we have fallen to that yet.

It just seems harder to track electronic tampering.

 

[mrhnau]

It just seems harder to track electronic tampering.

Think its that difficult to have dead people vote? felons vote? hide/stuff ballots? LOL no system is perfect, you just try to get it as accurate as humanly possible. The problem with electronic balloting is if there -IS- tampering, its going to be more dramatic and likely systematic (unless of course one party has a policy of stuffing, hiding votes, etc)

 

[Stealth]

Think its that difficult to have dead people vote? felons vote? hide/stuff ballots? LOL no system is perfect, you just try to get it as accurate as humanly possible. The problem with electronic balloting is if there -IS- tampering, its going to be more dramatic and likely systematic (unless of course one party has a policy of stuffing, hiding votes, etc)

I agree 100% no way is perfect... one is just easier.

 

[crushing]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12888600/site/newsweek/

Thoughts?

No matter what technology is thrown at balloting devices, it always seems to come back to trusting that your local elections board is doing the correct thing.

A Finnish security expert. Do you think hands of American security experts are tied by the DMCA? Ah, that's a whole other thread.

 

[michaeledward]

This video, from Marty Kaplan at the Huffpost, is terribly interesting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/how-to-hack-a-diebold-vot_b_26301.html

 

[Makalakumu]

This video, from Marty Kaplan at the Huffpost, is terribly interesting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/how-to-hack-a-diebold-vot_b_26301.html

The satire was awesome, but the material is frightening.