Domain: blackboxvoting.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to blackboxvoting.org.
Comments · 254
-
Re:Why?
at the end of the day, and this is the argument that I've yet to hear refuted... what's the harm of having the data to be mined stripped of personally identifying information, indexed, and linked to a database that stores the identifying information, which is accessible only by court order?
Troll troll troll your post
Gently down the screen
Merrily merrily merrily merrily
Life is but a stream
It's all about transparency. Which is even harder to maintain if parts of the process are no longer tangible, in plain sight and all.
Just how do you think you are going to verify that privacy is protected when you don't have access to the data, the software used to process it (both source code and actually running binaries) and the hardware it runs on? At least in the dead-tree era there would always be some paper trail to follow back to its source in case of malpractice.
I mean, it's not that hard to allow data mining AND protect privacy at the same time. [...]
Actually, this is Very Hard Indeed, precisely because of the lack of transparency, i.e. not knowing what gets done with that data in reality, not in theory. As long as you don't know for certain that the original data containing personally identifiable information is thoroughly and utterly destroyed, you can't be sure about your privacy no matter what you believe.
For another example of the dangers of a lack of transparency, read up on the recently uncovered voting irregularities at Black Box Voting. Shiver, shudder, then come again. -
A few more details from Black Box Voting
The pattern of date discrepancies does NOT look like "pure machine glitch" (hardware issues like a CMOS battery failure or corruption) and also doesn't look like the possible result of an OS bug.
The way they're mostly "clustered" in a limited date period of Oct. 13th - 20th of the correct year says to me "human intervension". It's not "randomized" the way most computer glitches are.
Next: by way of Jeremiah Akin, Riverside County elections staff have said that the PS/2 keyboard port on the back of each touchscreen terminal is used for, among other things, "to change the date and time".
We know from the logs on the serial numbers of the machines affected that the dates were accurate during the "logic and accuracy test" typically performed up to a month before the election.
OK, let's assume the Riverside folks are right about the keyboard being required for manual date/time changes.
Standard practice in the elections biz is to do the L&A then shut the machine down and DON'T mess with it until election morning. This is basic across all voting machines and has been since the lever days going back to the 19th century.
If the date was messed with by a human with a keyboard between the time of the L&A and the time of the election, well...what the holy hell were they doing? Once the keyboard is in you can tweak the boot order in ROM, loading new code off of new media, or maybe individual programs. (We know little about the OS on these but the boot ROM system is basically same as any laptop.)
In other words, it's not that radical a guess to say that somebody was up to something no good and the date weirdness was just a side effect.
If they were doing a very serious hack involving loading new code, it's possible that what they did hosed the date and they needed to reset it by hand...and in 40 or so cases they forgot that part?
Under this hypothesis the range of dates from the 13th to the 20th is maybe the time the "midnight black hat crew" spent touching each machine. The number of days involved is about right.
Again, this is speculation. We need the manuals on these things to understand the date function in detail. And the process by which new code or data is loaded, probably via PCMCIA card.
We need to replicate ALL these various errors and figure out how they happened, what could cause them and whether or not they're "pointers" to deeper problems, whether that's just "bad gear" or somebody actually loading a vote-shaving routine of some sort.
Jim March
Black Box Voting staff
http://blackboxvoting.org/ -
Jim March here: some general notes:
Sorry I can't respond to posts scattered throughout, I'm kinda busy right now
:).
But here's some general info not found in the story:
1) Glade County Florida gladly handed us at Black Box Voting a copy of their GEMS data file (the MS-Access abortion). Diebold didn't do squat to 'em. So the people saying Alaska's elections office is to blame are dead on. What are they hiding? They're among dozens of other jurisdictions also refusing these data files across the nation. Diebold has been distributing a memo asking them not to but legally it isn't worth it's weight in broken video card parts.
2) If y'all want to see the cease'n'desist from Diebold to me asking me to take my site down (containing these same types of files) in 2003, it's still online at:
http://www.equalccw.com/liebold.html
(If you see a black Buell S3 motorcycle running around the Seattle area with the words "LIEBOLD" on both sides of the gas tank, wave, that's me :).)
The point is, they've known the files are out there, I dared them to sue me via a DMCA counter-notification including giving them my home address for process service and they backed down. There's no more "secret sauce" here as the trademark lawyers put it.
(The files on my site are being moved this week over to http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ with pointers to the new locations as I'm now paid staff at BBV. That's a fairly recent development but immaterial to this situation.)
3) The MS-Access data files contain a "double set of books"...all of the vote data is duplicated in two tables. If you query the Diebold-written front end ("GEMS") for data on the whole county's election totals, those numbers come out of one table. If you query for any one precinct or a group of same, the numbers come out of the other table. By default they match. To hack an election, you rig the numbers that provide the whole county totals via MS-Access itself or VB scripts or Java or whatever tweaking on the Jet database engine. That way, the hapless clueless honest GEMS user at the county elections office who can't tell there's two tables is hosed. IF they suspect trouble at all, they spot-check individual precincts, hand-counting the totals and matching them to the individual precinct totals in GEMS. Do that a few times, they'll think it's all cool. They have no way of knowing there's "two sets of books" in the damned thing unless they print out EVERY precinct and add them up on a hand calculator.
4) If Diebold concerts tables to Excel, y'all REALLY think they'll export both if somebody hacked one? Riiiight. Hence the need for the raw file. (Oh yeah. There's a THIRD table. We don't know what it's for. Yet.)
Now look, it's not certain this was done in Alaska, OK? Actually, this whole thing in Alaska doesn't really look like a deliberate vote hack. We've seen some already, they're slicker than this...like James Bond (well except for that idiocy in Volusia County 2000 but nevermind). Whatever happened in Alaska was more "Inspector Clouseau". Probably just a dumb screwup on the part of elections officials.
But "we the people" (or at least the geekier among us) damned well have the right to sort it out, and that's why this is going to get pushed to a lawsuit, if not in Alaska, somewhere else. There are other states like Washington and Colorado where there are cash penalties for wrongfully denying public records so they're reaaaally tempting targets if the Alaska Democrats drop this ball. But...having talked to them, I don't think they will, I think they're going to follow this all the way to court and win.
One way or another, we're going to get access to these data files, it's a no-brainer.
Then...let's talk source code.
Jim March
Staffer/investigator
Black Box Voting Inc.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
PS: Alaska -
Jim March here: some general notes:
Sorry I can't respond to posts scattered throughout, I'm kinda busy right now
:).
But here's some general info not found in the story:
1) Glade County Florida gladly handed us at Black Box Voting a copy of their GEMS data file (the MS-Access abortion). Diebold didn't do squat to 'em. So the people saying Alaska's elections office is to blame are dead on. What are they hiding? They're among dozens of other jurisdictions also refusing these data files across the nation. Diebold has been distributing a memo asking them not to but legally it isn't worth it's weight in broken video card parts.
2) If y'all want to see the cease'n'desist from Diebold to me asking me to take my site down (containing these same types of files) in 2003, it's still online at:
http://www.equalccw.com/liebold.html
(If you see a black Buell S3 motorcycle running around the Seattle area with the words "LIEBOLD" on both sides of the gas tank, wave, that's me :).)
The point is, they've known the files are out there, I dared them to sue me via a DMCA counter-notification including giving them my home address for process service and they backed down. There's no more "secret sauce" here as the trademark lawyers put it.
(The files on my site are being moved this week over to http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ with pointers to the new locations as I'm now paid staff at BBV. That's a fairly recent development but immaterial to this situation.)
3) The MS-Access data files contain a "double set of books"...all of the vote data is duplicated in two tables. If you query the Diebold-written front end ("GEMS") for data on the whole county's election totals, those numbers come out of one table. If you query for any one precinct or a group of same, the numbers come out of the other table. By default they match. To hack an election, you rig the numbers that provide the whole county totals via MS-Access itself or VB scripts or Java or whatever tweaking on the Jet database engine. That way, the hapless clueless honest GEMS user at the county elections office who can't tell there's two tables is hosed. IF they suspect trouble at all, they spot-check individual precincts, hand-counting the totals and matching them to the individual precinct totals in GEMS. Do that a few times, they'll think it's all cool. They have no way of knowing there's "two sets of books" in the damned thing unless they print out EVERY precinct and add them up on a hand calculator.
4) If Diebold concerts tables to Excel, y'all REALLY think they'll export both if somebody hacked one? Riiiight. Hence the need for the raw file. (Oh yeah. There's a THIRD table. We don't know what it's for. Yet.)
Now look, it's not certain this was done in Alaska, OK? Actually, this whole thing in Alaska doesn't really look like a deliberate vote hack. We've seen some already, they're slicker than this...like James Bond (well except for that idiocy in Volusia County 2000 but nevermind). Whatever happened in Alaska was more "Inspector Clouseau". Probably just a dumb screwup on the part of elections officials.
But "we the people" (or at least the geekier among us) damned well have the right to sort it out, and that's why this is going to get pushed to a lawsuit, if not in Alaska, somewhere else. There are other states like Washington and Colorado where there are cash penalties for wrongfully denying public records so they're reaaaally tempting targets if the Alaska Democrats drop this ball. But...having talked to them, I don't think they will, I think they're going to follow this all the way to court and win.
One way or another, we're going to get access to these data files, it's a no-brainer.
Then...let's talk source code.
Jim March
Staffer/investigator
Black Box Voting Inc.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
PS: Alaska -
Website: blackboxvoting.org
For more information: http://blackboxvoting.org/
-
Re:Outsourcing Political Aid.
If you believe India is a democracy, you are sadly mistaken. It puts on a good simulation of the same though, I must admit.
A simulation better than the US, in fact. -
This is amazing
Municipalities that use electronic voting machines are responsible for providing to the public, on request, the code used.
This isn't like North Carolina requiring that the source be placed in escrow, they're actually requiring it be available to the public.
I can't wait to see what http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ has to say about this one.
It means they won't have to jump through fucking hoops just to test the machine (like in California) -
Re:Corporate Anarchy
Soap box: check
Ballot box: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ pointless
Ammo box: ? -
Re:Another podcast interview on prisonplanet too
Nope. A vote cast on a rigged machine with no audit trail is equally wasted.
Indeed. A most excellent exception, I stand corrected. Please mod parent up. This is another incredibly important thing in any kind of real representative democracy, ensuring that the process of voting and counting itself is fair. Lots of relevant stuff here. -
Re:Break the news?
The terms I actually used, "most slashdotters", and "many slashdotters", are not logically equivalent to "all slashdotters".
You may want to review the laws of formal logic regarding quantifiers. Try http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Formal_Logic/Predica
t e_Logic/The_Predicate_LanguageJust a thought
On the other hand, if what you are trying to say is something like "put your efforts somewhere where they will be more effective", then, yes, a donation to http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ has been given.
-
No, this is real and there's new test data out...
To quote the latest article on the Black Box Voting site (and then some background below that):
---
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/1559 5.html?1134523376
Due to security design issues and contractual non-performance, Leon County (Florida) supervisor of elections Ion Sancho told Black Box Voting that he will never use Diebold in an election again. He has requested funds to replace the Diebold system from the county. He will issue a formal announcement to this effect shortly.
Finnish security expert Harri Hursti proved that Diebold lied to Secretaries of State across the nation when Diebold claimed votes could not be changed on the memory card.
A test election was run in Leon County today with a total of eight ballots - six ballots voted "no" on a ballot question as to whether Diebold voting machines can be hacked or not. Two ballots, cast by Dr. Herbert Thomson and by Harri Hursti voted "yes" indicating a belief that the Diebold machines could be hacked.
At the beginning of the test election the memory card programmed by Harri Hursti was inserted into an Optical Scan Diebold voting machine. A "zero report" was run indicating zero votes on the memory card. In fact, however, Hursti had pre-loaded the memory card with plus and minus votes.
The eight ballots were run through the optical scan machine. The standard Diebold-supplied "ender card" was run through as is normal procedure ending the election. A results tape was run from the voting machine.
Correct results should have been:
Yes:2 No:6
However the results tape read:
Yes:7 No:1
The results were then uploaded from the optical scan voting machine into the GEMS central tabulator. The central tabulator is the "mothership" that pulls in all votes from voting machines. The results in the central tabulator read:
Yes:7 No:1
This proves that the votes themselves were changed in a one-step process that would not be detected in any normal canvassing procedure - using only a credit-card sized memory card.
Diebold Elections Systems head of research and development Pat Green specifically told the Cuyahoga County board of elections that votes could not be changed on the memory card.
According to Public Records responses obtained by Black Box Voting in response to our requests shows that Diebold promulgated this misrepresentation to as many as 800 state and local elections officials.
In other news, according to Bradblog a stockholder suit was filed today against Diebold by the law offices of Scott and Scott:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002153.htm
Permission to reprint granted with link to http://blackboxvoting.org/
---
Jim again. Let me fill you in on the background.
Six months ago Leon County elections administrator Ion Sancho asked us (Black Box Voting) to "test hack" his Diebold optical scan system. We brought Finnish security expert Harri Hursti and Dr. Hugh Thomson from Florida along.
Dr. Thomson proved that the central tabulator's database (in MS-Access of all things) can be hacked without a retail copy of MS-Access present. He used Visual Basic to control the MS Jet database engine directly, using very small script files...small enough to be typed in via MS-Windows Notepad at the tabulator console. We already knew the MS-Access database was tamper-friendly but this was real-world proof that you didn't need to bring in and load a copy of Access to tamper. The same things can almost certainly be done in Java and probably other ways as well.
Harri Hursti pulled off something new.
The report co-written with Bev Harris proved it's possible to doctor the poll tapes. These are the end-of-day printouts showing the number of votes for each candidate or issue taken in on that machine. It's basically -
Re:Not to worry
very interesting -- according to the http://www.us-cert.gov/ (Readiness, not Response) web site, the problem was pointed out to them by the good people at http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ -- has this not been discussed already on
/. -- is that possible? -
Some Diebold programmers were criminals
It's true that getting a total list of programmers in an open-source system would be impossible.
But as a practical matter it's impossible to name all of the Windows programmers either. The court wouldn't expect that of Diebold any more than they'd require a total list of Linux programmers from an open-source voting project.
What Diebold could easily do is name their own programmers.
Except there's no way in hell they'd want to do that.
In 2002 Diebold bought Global Election Systems, which became the Diebold Election Systems unit. Global was founded under another name in 1988 by Norton Cooper, Michael K. Graye and Charles Hong Lee...all with damned interesting resumes (footnote 1):
Norton Cooper - jail for a year mid-1980s for fraud against the Canada government; ordered out of stock pitch schemes and was part of the collapse of the Vancouver stock exchange - ordered by decree not to pitch stock after 1992 or so because he caused havoc every time. Written up by Barron's and Forbes as a "hazard to avoid at the golf course". First convicted of political corruption in 1974 - look up a Canadian case titled "The Queen v. Norton Cooper" 1977 Canadian Supreme Court.
Charles Hong Lee - stock schemes; Cooper's partner pitching deals. Defrauded Chinese immigrants, $600,000(Can) court-ordered restitution mid-90s. Sold "real estate" which was actually the bail for the third partner below to the tune of about $300,000(can) circa 1995ish.
Michael K. Graye - nailed for stealing $18mil from three companies in the '88-'89 era, caught in '94, jailed in the US for stock fraud around '94 re: Vinex wines, released around 2000 - 2002(3?) in the US, brought back to Canada, still in jail there. Arrested for tax evasion and money laundering circa '94.
Those three in turn hired even more "colorful" staff:
John Elder was a cocaine trafficker, in a WA prison early/mid 1990s...fellow inmate was Jeffrey Dean (see next entry). Handled ballot printing for Global late 1990s. Seems to have been the one to bring Dean into Global.
Jeffrey Dean was convicted early '90s of 23 counts of computer-aided embezzlement. He was a computer consultant for a large Seattle law firm and defrauded them of about $450,000 in what US courts called a "sophisticated computer-aided scheme". In a statement to Seattle PD, he claimed he needed the money because Canadians were blackmailing him; in that country, he'd gotten into a fistfight and the other guy had died. (Yes, I've seen the police report.) He joined Elder in the Global ballot printing business late '90s, and with Global's introduction was doing computer consulting with the King County WA elections division - they had no idea of his criminal record. By 2000 he was doing programming for Global and by early Oct. of 2000 he was a full employee and lead programmer for the GEMS vote-tally product still in use. By late Oct. 2000 and shipping in time for the November election, GEMS ver.1.17.5 contains the first "double set of books" problem where all votes are recorded twice internally and don't need to match...long story but it apparantly hides some forms of vote fraud. At the time Diebold bought Global in 2002, Dean quit and was immediately hired back as a consultant via management decision made within the division. This appears to be an attempt to keep Dean's criminal past out of Diebold corporate head office's scrutiny.
At the time Diebold bought Global, Dean owned 10% of Global's stock.
We don't know how many other lower-level progammers within Global/Diebold have criminal records. It's rather obvious that Diebold sure as hell doesn't want us finding out.
Footnote 1 - see also "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering In The 21st Century" by Bev Harris, esp. the "Diebold" section at the end of Chapter 8. Free PDF downloads can be found at: http://blackboxvoting.org/ -
Re:The Ever Expanding BureaucracyWhile I'm certainly no "anarcho-capitalist" like the grandparent (dada21), and while I *mostly* agree with the your post, I will say that there is one way in which you, the individual, control private organizations: wallet power.
Don't like Sony for their rootkit bullshit? Don't buy Sony's CDs. Want to stick it to 'em even more? Don't buy a PS3 when it comes out in a few months. Want Sony to just totally FOAD? Don't buy anything made by Sony and convince your friends not to either; maybe even organize a boycott.
Unlike the government, which takes money from you in the form of taxes whether you like it or not and whether you agree with its end-use or not, Sony has no such power. For as big and powerful and well-lawyered as Sony is, they *still* don't have the power to take your money against your will. But your even your backwoods local government -- to say nothing of state and federal govn'ts -- have that power.
True, you're just 1 person in the sea of revenues Sony has. You, by yourself, are not even a drop in Sony's buckets. Your $15 Sony-produced CD, $300 PS3 (I'm guesstimating the PS3's release price), $200 Sony MP3 player -- that $515 is not even sofa money to Sony. You are not a unique and beautiful snowflake.
But the same is true of government; indeed, it's true of *ANY* sufficiently-large organization. Your voice in our democracy is drowned-out by the cacaphony of the herd; your vote -- your single vote -- is one of over 100 million in any recent national, Presidential election (125 million in 2004). And thanks to the Electoral College, if you don't vote the same way the majority of the people in your state did, then your vote is rendered irrelevant in the federal election. You don't win, and thus, the ultimate outcome is just the same as if you had not voted at all; you could've voted for Daffy Duck or the Unabomber, and either way, it'd be the same as voting for a candidate that lost - mainstream or not.
And that assumes a *fair* election. But as Stalin once said, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." Black-Box voting, anybody?
At least with Sony you get to vote with your dollars and not buy their crap. And, given that for as big as Sony is, they still have a lower amount of revenues than the U.S. government -- pit Sony's $67 billion vs. last year's IRS revenues of around $2.4 trillion -- your missing dollars, all $515 of them, *still* matter 35 times more to Sony than they would to the govn't.
The fact that businesses don't get to write law -- at least, not explicitly, and not without our elected retards in Congress approving it -- makes them generally less-oppressive than governments, even local ones...
Point being, big organizations -- government or business -- try to fuck people. Or, as the higher-minded Milton Friedman once put it in Free to Choose:We have been forgetting the basic truth that the greatest threat to human freedom is the concentration of power, whether in the hands of government or anyone else. We have persuaded ourselves that it is safe to grant power, provided it is for good reasons.
That's the nature of humanity: eat or be eaten; kill or be killed; Darwinistic law-of-the-jungle; some days you're the statue, some days you're the bird. The only question is, how do we minimize the effect of that nature?
By keeping organizations small and competitive. Small, local governments (or barring that, state-level governments) doing most of the governing, and competing against other small, local governments for your citizenship and tax dollars. Small businesses (or barring that, at least several larger, non-colluding businesses) doing most of the bus -
Bev Harris here, too lazy to find my passwordHeh. Jim March -- good post. As for R. Doug whoever (his resume uder the name "Lewis" doesn't check out and he appears not to have existed, at least with present name, before 1985) -- well, what does it tell you when N.I.S.T finally addresses voting machine hacking head-on, in a summit in Washington D.C. on Oct. 7 this year, and scientists are submitting hack after hack, many of them already through proof of concept testing --
and R. Doug whoever steps up to the mic and says "I feel like hanging myself."
This is a guy who used to sell used computer parts, then took over training of all election officials in the U.S., arranged lobbyists for the vendors, takes money from the vendors (at Black Box Voting we recovered financial documents in a Diebold dumpster dive showing checks written out to Lewis's organization, The Election Center); This is a guy who told me he helps select the testing labs. He hangs up on people when they ask him questions (he also hangs up on reporters, what a bright move -- he hung up on the Los Angeles Times at one point...)
I think Jim's assessment is about right. Saying people look "loony" when they tell the truth about a broken election system is like, as Jim says, tiptoeing around a live battlefield picking up debris for recycling.
Look folks, we wasted billions of dollars in taxpayer money on this noncompliant illegal, designed-for-tampering stuff, and now the perps who foisted these voting machines on us without ever asking for our permission are busy jockeying for positions in the free pass line.
We aren't going to solve this by being politically correct.
Bev Harris
Founder
Black Box Voting
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ -
As one of the two people invited to this shindig..
Let's make a few points clear here.
1) The Libertarian connection happened as a result of California Election Code 15004, which reads:
---
The county central committee of each qualified political party may employ, and may have present at the central counting place or places, not more than two qualified data processing specialists or engineers to check and review the preparation and operation of the tabulating devices, their programming and testing, and have the specialists or engineers in attendance at any or all phases of the election.
---
So we (Black Box Voting) approached the California Libertarian Party to team up and do up-close inspections of these voting machines, or at least explore what's possible under 15004. They hired us at a buck a day. The main result: we ended up with listings of installed software and drivers that make it obvious Diebold wasn't obeying a court order to shut down networking drivers that weren't necessary. We've complained to the California AG's office about this and Diebold's cross-connection of the San Diego central tabulator box to the Internet (also banned by both the same court order and state regulation). More details at:
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth .cgi?file=/1954/14325.html
This upcoming "test hack" at the California Secretary of State's office is another matter entirely.
This all started when we (Black Box Voting) hired Finnish security consultant Harri Hursti to help out in a "test hack" in Leon County FL where the county elections official (Ion Sancho) was worried about all this "Diebold" controversy.
What Hursti found was pretty wild. In short: before the election, all the precinct memory cards are prepped from the central vote count box with the ballot and candidate data...normal enough. But the cards are also prepped with interpreted BASIC code loaded into all the memory cards to control the output of the summary counter printer at each precinct. Worse, if you mess around with that code loaded first at the central tabulator, you can make that end-of-day-printout read whatever you want...put in a vote-skimming routine, false numbers, whatever. Nothing in the system at the central or precinct ends checks for hashes or whatever to see if the BASIC code is legit. Said code can be date/time sensitive so that the machines will still pass Logic&Accuracy testing before or after the election. With the paper trail at the precinct dickered with, you can use the other major hack available - altering the central database of votes to match the precinct report paper. Not hard - the central database of votes is written in MS-Access so either load a commercial copy of Access and tweak by hand, or load/type a Visual Basic script to monkey with the JET database engine (the "Access back end") on autopilot.
Net result: one thoroughly "pwned" election.
The full report:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/BBVreport.pdf
Since then, *nobody* has tried to duplicate the Hursti results. If they're true, Diebold would have to do a nationwide recall and the Federally approved testing labs (Ciber Inc. in Huntsville AL and a division of Wyle also in Huntsville) would need a visit by people with badges, guns and search warrants.
After the preliminary report on the Leon County hack was released but before the final report linked above, Bev Harris and I formally asked the California Secretary of State's office to check out the issues Hursti found, under yet another obscure clause of the California elections code, 19202:
---
Any person or corporation owning or being interested in any voting system or part of a voting system may apply to the Secretary of State to examine it and report on its accuracy and efficiency to fulfill its purpose. The Secretary of State shall complete his or her examination without undue delay -
like Diebold voting machines
I think it was on blackboxvoting.org that described how Diebold used some blind/disabled voters to pressure the county elections officials to purchase Diebold machines or the handicaped representatives sued the county officials.
For me it looks the same in MA. MS has no arguments against an open document standard.
Instead they form/found/support an "independent" grassroot handicaped organisation to support voice objections against a format.
Remember it is only a format and not a software. People use software to access documents of a certain format.
If Microsoft wants it's Office 200X to be used by MA officals they have to support the OpenDocument Format (and lower the price). -
Very VERY good
This is very important in terms of keeping what's left of our democracy alive.
The number of abuses possible using Diebold's is simply staggering...
I'm impressed with a lot of the people campaigning against slimy voting machines - one is http://blackboxvoting.org/; there are people who have been devoting their lives to this since the last election... More then I'm good for!
Open Source voting machines will make it much easier for potential problems to be spotted, and a hell of a lot easier to get them fixed! The current companies don't really need to worry about fixing their problems - after all, what's wrong with fixing elections?
--LWM -
Re:And people wonder why you should be againstNice try. People *were* watching before the 2004 election.
Please research here before you dismiss such things lightly.
-
Blackboxvoting hacked the Diebold optical scanners
Anybody seen the Hari Hursti report yet?
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/BBVreport.pdf -
Re:Word From the WhitehouseDon't blame me. I didn't vote for that backwards, warmongering son of a bitch.
:-(Neither did anybody else!
(Anybody who flames me for hyperbole should be shot by a potato gun firing squad.) -
Re:No more recounts ever
The tinfoiled, myself among them, will point out that even if there is a paper trail, it may never be seen if an election is not close enough. In a lot of places, manual recounts are triggered by elections being too close; if elections are decided by electronic tabulation first, we will never see a paper ballot.
Personally, I like the precision that electronic voting has the potential to deliver--and the instant results are definitely a plus. The solution to your problem is, of course, to count the paper record of a random sampling of machines and compare them to the electrionic records of those machines, in every election. This verifies that everything is on the up and up.
Now, what tinfoil hatted folk like me are wondering is "where the fuck was the new york times these last few election cycles when both conservatives and liberals were pointing out how easy it was to defraud the machines and asking 'why dont these things have paper records?'"
-
the paper trail......
What I find interesting is that Diebold makes probably MOST of the ATMs that people use on a regular basis, so they actually do know how to make secure and reliable machines on secure networks (at least secure and reliable enough for banks) with the most intense paper trail systems known to man and beast.
The question, then, why did they suddenly begin making machines that had absolutely NO paper trail? This makes no sense at all to me. It would have been NO problem for them to include such a facility in their voting machines. And in fact it may well have cost them more to take it out.
So - were they given specifications to remove the usual papertrail devices? If so, from whom were those instructions issued? Maybe someone can help me out with a tinfoil hat theory involving some vast ___-wing conspiracy?
Oh - and I believe Bev Harris is the official 'go to' girl on this topic: http://blackboxvoting.org/ -
So What?
GW Bush won his office through some questionable means. Not once, but twice. Every single instance of an election problem worked out in Bush's favor. When a voting machine screwed up, it was inevitably adding votes to Bush, or counting Kerry votes as votes for someone else. Right now in Ohio, there's a big scandal where money meant for investment wound up in the pockets of Republican campaigns.
I predict that some people will try to mod me down to suppress the truth, but they will fail.
More information:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.ht m -
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
some tech/science books
- The first edition of the classic Cheswick and Bellovin book Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker is available in its entirety for free online.
- Black Box Voting - Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 d - Appendix Footnotes Index
- http://www.physicsforfree.com/
- http://www.dctech.com/physics/textbooks.php
- http://www.nap.edu/books/NX005722/html/related.ht
m l - High Energy Physics - Fields
- Also, the National Academies Press says it has over 2,500 books on many different academic topics online for free.
- Open Source Development with CVS
-
Re:Why worry?
We could use more investigative journalists right now (http://www.blackboxvoting.org/)
-
Correct Link
Here's the correct link: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
-
Re:why no criminal charges?
According to the people at blackboxvoting.org this settlement came as surprise to them and they're parties in the case and should (but did not) have a chance to testify in the settlement proceeding. It certainly seems a little fishy.
-
Re:Death Penalty for Corporations
*sigh*
... WAKE UP!What's the argument for treason?
Your question is badly phrased, but I will respond to what I believe the spirit of it to be...
The argument is a legal one, and resides under the Law. IANAL, but I do consider Samuel Adams to be "pretty decent for a domestic beer" so I'll try to hit the high points. Remember: You asked.
The argument for treason is that these corporations have been and continue to systematically engage in activities designed to destroy the Federal Government of the United States of America.
These behaviours are not patriotic (they go against the fundation of the Republic) or revolutionary (they don't fight to overthrow oppression), therefore, such actions against the state can only be treason.
The actions of these corporation are widespread and insidious, some of them taking place covertly at the State and Municiple level. Nevertheless, the pattern of effect is clear: while such actions and activities may support individual participants in the governmental process - they are as a whole determintal to the structure and operation of the government as an entity. and destructive to both the letter and the spirit of the Law.
(which government must be defined by the founding documents of the country - specificly the Constitution of the United States of America), and is particularly detrimental to the well-being of the population of the country, standing as they do to withhold or otherwise abrogate the fundamental Rights of the citizenry - Life, Liberty, etc as definned in the Constitution, etc etc...)
Your attempt to ask what verification of their actions exist is both disingenous and badly couched, as well
...Diebold had machines involved in an election wherein the candidate of your choice did not win.
Diebold has been systematicly undermining democracy in the US for years. Look it up. Your implication that I may have supported a candidate in some "election" is spurious and beside the point.
Halliburton is a contractor involved in a military operation of which you do not approve.
Halliburton has been using their relationship with a US head of state to rob the US treasury and (further) endanger the lives of US citizens. You implication concerning my personal support for any given military operations is ill-concieved and not germaine to the issues surrounding Halliburton.
If you want to talk about my positions on the given points of own agenda, please be more direct. AC trolling makes you look like a girly man. Responding to it is poor form on my part.
But what is your evidence that treason has been committed, and what is your argument?
Well, the evidence is everywhere you look, but it is is not "mine", and I didn't claim to have it. I simply said it is "arguable" - which it is. Get your head out fo the boob toob and take a look around.
Diebold
Tthe Diebold issue is not (just) in California (the only part of it that CNN seems to be willing to report on - Fox doesn't appear to be covering it at all), it's nationwide (although it's being fought in Ohio, right now).
See also: http://www.nightweed.com/usavotefacts.html
And as if that were not enough for an indictment (I've seen cases were far less was considered sufficient):
-
it's not over 'til the fat lady sings
the people that originally brought the suit are not at all happy with the settlement and are trying to fight it. the diebold press release about the supposedly court-approved settlement came out of the blue and caught them off guard.
there was a judge looking into the settlement... let's see what happens.
this is from a 12/14 post from the lawyer involved (http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcb oard.cgi?az=show_thread&omm=0&om=50&forum=DCForumI D4408):
===
From: JimMarch
"Heads up, y'all: the Alameda lawsuit has developments!"
To catch y'all up:
Last October elections lawyer Lowell Finley came to me with the idea of making Diebold give a refund for junk voting machines based on laws regarding defrauding the gov't when making sales. Electronic voting law is new and poorly developed; contractor fraud law is MUCH older and much stronger.
I said I'd do it as long as Bev was a plaintiff too.
We filed the suit "under seal" (per the rules) in Alameda County Superior Court in November of '03. The California Attorney General (AG)'s office extended the seal several times while deciding whether or not to "join in", finally doing so Sept. of '04.
About a month ago, the AG's office announced a "proposed settlement" with Diebold, for peanuts. They claimed total damages of $2.6mil and offered Bev and I $76k a piece so long as we didn't complain about this "sweetheart deal", the announcement of which caused Diebold's stock to bump up by over $42mil the next day alone. We were told that any attempt to derail the "proposed settlement" would lead to the AG's office arguing that Bev and I should get nada.
We had already decided to fight this thing regardless, even if it meant colliding with the state's top lawyer. We don't have "veto power" over the proposed settlement, but we do get the right to speak against it before the judge. We assumed that would be a brutal fight with long odds.
But then a funny thing happened.
Alameda County assigned an unusual judge. They pulled the former head of the entire county court system out of retirement, a guy name of William McKinstry. Our sources so far say he's good. And with no other cases on his docket, he seems to be paying attention to what's going on...before we even got a chance to file our opposition data, he put out a set of questions to all the lawyers involved that shows...well, he's deep into "smells a rat mode". Check out what he wrote, verbatim:
http://www.equalccw.com/judgesmellsarat.pdf
Note that the "Qui Tams" is basically Latin for "whistleblowers" - Bev and I.
This document is unbelievably good. We not only have a chance here, the judge is already questioning what's up.
Folks, if we can derail this "proposed settlement", Diebold is in deep kimchee. They either have to come up with a lot more money, or face discovery which is gonna be brutal considering they've now admitted ownership of the 15,000 or so internal memos in the Federal case recently won by Indymedia and EFF. Between that and the other bodies buried which Bev and I know about, discovery will be "anal probe level sans lube" }>. They'll do *anything* to avoid that, possibly right up to quitting the elections biz.
Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
Jim March
http://www.equalccw.com/voteprar.html
===
his 12/17 post in the same thread said: "Actions are being taken. Won't have a real report until Monday at the earliest, maybe longer. But yeah, we haven't given up...be stupid to do so with the judge asking those questions." -
Not Just Touchscreens
Everyone talks about how horribly insecure the touchscreens are.
But in a lot of counties that didn't use them, the results from things like optical scanners were still stored and calculated using GEMS. Which is not too secure.
Read that, and then read this.
The problems weren't with touchscreens. They were with GEMS, though. But whoever hacked Florida knew enough to not mess with touchscreens: they went right to the source, and that's also why it wasn't spotted.
And we've all seen this, about the Democrats trying to not let Diebold supply the voting machines to Ohio, after their CEO stated that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year"?
I'm still confused as to why no one (in mainstream America) seems to care at all. There was blatant fraud going on, particularly in Florida counties.