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Diebold Disks May Have Been For Testers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the concientious-tester dept.

opencity writes "The Washington Post reports on the two Diebold source disks that were anonymously sent to a Maryland election official this past week. Further investigation has lead individuals involved to believe the disks came from a security check demanded by the Maryland legislature sometime in 2003." From the article: "Critics of electronic voting said the most recent incident in Maryland casts doubt on Lamone's claim that Maryland has the nation's most secure voting system. "There now may be numerous copies of the Diebold software floating around in unauthorized hands," said Linda Schade, co-founder of TrueVoteMD, which has pressed for a system that provides a verifiable paper record of each vote."

1 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Can't do much with these disks by electrosoccertux · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are far more serious issues than our voting problems today when people consider wanting to learn about somthing akin to "messing with" it. As if my understanding of the source code behind how my vote is cast at all interferes with our country electing the next president. Unless, that is, there are flaws in the code that say all the votes will be converted to votes for [insert favorite politician here] if I press the upper right hand corner of the screen five times in under ten seconds; and my understanding of such a flaw [even though I wouldn't take advantage of it] stalls the election process. Nows whose fault would that be? Is it somehow my fault, for finding out that the Diebold did a bad job?

    I've heard the likes of your attitude before. It can pretty much be summed up as "Don't ask why, that's just how it is." Imagine if you told your kids that.

    Try appending that statement to the end of different statements:

    -"We can't cure cancer. Don't ask why, that's just how it is." And so nobody bothers researching a cure.
    -"Your computer's Windows installation is broken. Don't ask why, that's just how it is." And so you needlessly spend $$$ on a new computer when all you needed was a fresh installation and anti-vir."
    -"2 + 2 = 5. Don't ask why, that's just how it is." And so the plane crashes.
    -"You're wrong. Don't ask why, that's just how it is."

    I hope you get the point.