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Election Officials And Crackers Challenge Diebold

Rick Zeman writes "The Washington Post is reporting that election officials in Florida have manipulated election results in controlled tests. From the article: 'Four times over the past year Sancho told computer specialists to break in to his voting system. And on all four occasions they did, changing results with what the specialists described as relatively unsophisticated hacking techniques. To Sancho, the results showed the vulnerability of voting equipment manufactured by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, which is used by Leon County and many other jurisdictions around the country.'"

4 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Why not do something about it? by Jaazaniah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, if someone has the knowledge of the system you just proposed, why not take the long shot and propose to work for the gov't and put that together? Not only would you be able to demonstrate how insecure Diebold's system is with a tiny PDA that can read/write their memory sticks, but you'd also be able to demonstrate that you can't do that to yours. At least not on the fly with a PDA.

    Steps to stopping the stupidity:
    1) Put down (favorite game) when you're off work.
    2) Write plan, put something together.
    3) Get in touch with someone with the power to make the (smart) decision.
    4) Show off.

  2. Re:The Bush family is the most corrupt ever. by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My impression is that the Bush family is the most corrupt family every to have political power in the United States.

    Bush family? Sad to say, Abraham Lincoln was more corrupt than all the Bushes combined. With GW, it isn't considered treason to say that the Gulf War II was wrong. In Abraham Lincoln's regime, it would have been. As unconstitutional as W's wiretapping efforts were, Lincoln wiped his arse with the constitution by suspending it completely.

  3. Re: There's one flaw in your argument by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > If this was about oil, it was a damned stupid financial decision

    Ah, but you neglect the distinction between who is going to pay for it and who was supposed to profit from it.

    The oil companies were supposed to supposed to benefit from it (by means of the distribution contracts rather than by pwning the oilfields per se), but you and your descendents will be paying for the war, yea unto the seventh generation.

    (Saw a news story somewhere this month about a new estimate of the war's total costs to the USA running to the amount of two trillion dollars. Cheney and his cronies won't be picking up the tab; they're already getting tax breaks on their record profits, while the national debt goes ballistic.)

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  4. You can always use paper ballots! by Bobzibub · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Canada's national election happens to be tomorrow.....

    "All votes are made on the same standard heavy paper ballot which is inserted in a standard cardboard box, furnished by Elections Canada. The ballot and the box are devised to ensure that no one except the elector knows the individual choice that was made. Counting the ballots is done by hand in full view of the representatives of each candidate. There are no mechanical, electrical or electronic systems involved in this process."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_electoral_sy stem#Non-partisan_election_officers

    Scandalous!

    Cheers,
    -b