Slashdot Mirror
Dutch Securing E-voting After Being Pwned
An anonymous reader writes, "After the Dutch we-don't-trust-voting-computers foundation demonstrated glaring security holes in Dutch voting computers last week, the Dutch government has ordered (Dutch) all software to be replaced, all hardware to be checked, unflashable firmware to be installed, and an iron seal to be placed on voting machines. A certification institute will double-check all measures, and on election day will cull random machines to check them for accuracy. The Dutch intelligence service AIVD has been approached to consult on the radio emissions issue. Furthermore, foreign observers will monitor the upcoming elections on November 22nd. But the action group is still not confident (Dutch) that all problems are solved." US elections are controlled at the local level, so unfortunately such a nationwide fix would not be workable here.
What is "pwned"?
.. something that shouldn't belong in a slashdot headline..
- Leon Mergen
http://www.solatis.com
They do all of these things, and yet still do not create a paper trail of each vote?
It appears that the machines only create a paper copy of the results at the end of the day...
Pwned? What is this, Digg? Next thing you know you'll see headlines like this: ***RUMOR*** Apple might make iBooks a slighterly darker shade of white!!!!
Why the hell wouldn't it be? Sure it would cost more and probably be harder to setup than in holland since there is more territory and a much higher population count, but not workable? We're talking democracy at stake here, I don't see much that you could want to "fix" more than the risk of losing your voice, of making your votes irrelevant and inexistant, or being cheated out of choosing your leaders and the way your country will behave in the future.
Of course, some people may be more interested in there being a high risk of electronic electoral fraud, if they're committing or benefiting from the fraud in the first place...
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Paper is neither inefficient, or backward. It's the only way to conduct an open and accurate election on a nation wide scale, without introducing unacceptable doubt into the legitimacy of the winner(s). Florida's paper chad system was a failure because machines more complicated than pencils, and obscuring of the working of the ballot was placed between the voter and the ballot. The result was a flawed result, and a delayed result, many times longer than the longest recent Canadian federal general elections.
Oh You POS
If true, this is a major step. The voting process hasn't been very transparent, with Nedap trying to keep the software and voting procedures a secret. Wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet forced the issue using the Dutch 'freedom of information' act to get access to documents.
Let's hope this committee will have access to the source code, and will be able to monitor and verify that the new PROMs actually contain the code the committee has been reviewing.
I, for one, welcome our election-monitoring overlords. Where do I sign up to be one of them?
US elections are controlled at the local level, so unfortunately such a nationwide fix would not be workable here.
Sure it would. Powers reserved for the states have been nationalized over and over again by the simple application of cash: The federal government offers funding for a particular project but you have to follow the federal rules to get it. The federal rules are rarely too onorous and the money you don't have to collect in local taxes is too much to turn down when the neighboring states all take it.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
The Federal Government controls the actions of states by attaching conditions to funding. Highway speed limits and the .08 alcohol limit are examples.
Easily done in other areas.
"Pwned" has been showing up constantly recently, and it's always kdawson.
What Slashdot need to remember is that their headlines show up in a variety of professional places (by rss) - Google news for one, and having words such as "pwned" looks beyond amateurish.
How about the next story being "Slashdot editors pwned with a dictionary, improvements expected all round"?
Remember that these electronic voting machines were designed and build in the eighties of the last century, and have been used ever since.
What Microsoft does in an xbox360 is not relevant to what a small engineering company would have done over 20 years ago.
You could call it the disadvantage of an early rollout of modern technology.
On the other hand, you can also claim that the current hardware can be understood by a causal onlooker with electronics and software background.
It contains only off-the-shelf parts and the protest group was able to disassemble and analyze it (as well as port a chess program to the hardware) in a months time.
Try that with an Xbox.
Come on, it's been in three headlines (that I've seen) so far and it's just not funny or clever.
Frankly it makes me cringe to read it and I don't even have to put up with this kind of crap on Kuro5hin, it's more annoying than Roland.
CUT IT OUT!
"In a bay in California they found several ballot boxes....."
Because they used paper, there was something to find.
"In my state of WV they are still prosecuting people for vote buying and ballot box stuffing."
Because they used paper, and there was something which could be found.
Let me fix that for you:
There. No problem, no need to thank me.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Good post. Just to clarify some things:
Arguments for local control of voting regulations. [...]
1 - The United States Of America was designed as a confederation of (mostly) independent states. Only the powers explicitly given to the federal government are not the jurisdiction of the states.
Actually a federation rather than a confederation. The difference is slight but important. Nonetheless, the 10th ammendment is very specific about the limits of powers of the federal government vs state governments.
Most of the expansion of federal authority has been carried out under the commerce clause of the Constitution -- that Washington has authority over matters of interstate trade, which has been used to enforce federal regulations from industrial emmissions to minimum wage to drug enforcement, etc. And it also comes into play when the Feds distribute federal HAVA (Help America Vote Act) funds to states. Though these only really apply to federal elections (i.e. Congress and President), no state is willing to maintain one election system for local and state elections and a second for federal elections.
The 14th ammendment guarantees equal access to the polls, but does not, and cannot dictate the mechanisms and procedures used on the state level, other than making sure that they are compatible with the 14th ammendment and the Voting Rights Act.
2 - The innovative power of the open market. The belief that by allowing a competition of ideas in how best to run elections (as long as they meet minimal standards) the best choice will be eventually reached.
The first point is far more applicable. Elections are the responsibility of the state, not the federal government. Each state has the power to determine its own election laws and practices, and laws vary widely. WA, for example, is moving towards all-mail voting. SD is exempt from HAVA provisions mandating state-wide voter databases since that state does not require voter registration.
Some states allow election day registration, others do not. Some states allow any voter to vote in all primary elections, some allow it for one primary election, and some states require that voters be registered in a given party to vote that party's primary ballot.
The benefits of open competition are positive, but a side effect.
And to the Anonymous Asshat who replied earlier: Diebold is not the leader in voting hardware. ES&S machines are used in roughly 50 percent of precincts and by roughly 50 percent of the US population. I believe, though am by no means sure, that Sequoia is the number two vendor by market share.
3 - Local boards of elections consist of an equal number of members of both parties. The belief is that Democrats won't allow Republicans to steal the election, and vise versa.
Again, this depends on the state. In some, like Ohio, the State Board of Elections is divided by state law between the two major parties. In some states the board is appointed while in others others Board seats are elected positions. While I'm not aware of any states that have election boards made up of members from only one party, there are many states that do not allocate board seats by party affiliation.
"Would CNN run this headline on their front page?"
If the answer is yes, don't post it on slashdot.
I hate redundant news.
Anyone complaining about seeing the word "pwned" on a geek website better get their news from somewhere else.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
You sure you're not new here????
This is Slashdot, not the NYT, or the WSJ. We're GEEKS dammit!
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.