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Hacker Exposes Parts of Florida's Voting Database

Dangerous_Minds writes "Some people feel that elections can be rigged and votes tampered with. One hacker, who goes by the name of Abhaxas, decided to prove that votes aren't secure by exposing parts of the Florida voting database. Said Abhaxas while posting the data, 'Who believes voting isn't tampered with?'"

53 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. Good job on behalf of the hacker by Cito · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Hopefully this can help finally shed light on voting fraud to stuff the ballots in our election process. I've never been one for electronic voting as it's so much more easily tampered with. And only reason it's pushed so much is due to companies like diebold and the media who push so they can have up to the second voter tallies so they can sound like they are on top of everything when reporting.

    It needs to go back to the old way, which wasn't perfect, but was hell of a lot better than electronic voting.

    1. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe we should re-evaluate the secret ballot. It would seem like fraud is always possible as long as ballots can't be linked one to one with a person. Even with paper ballots, someone can always steal or destroy or fill out fake ones.

      Why not just go ahead and make it all verifiable?

      When you show up to vote, they print a bar code off on two labels. One goes into the log book next to your name, the matching label goes on the ballot.

    2. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by damiangerous · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why not just go ahead and make it all verifiable? Coercion. An employer or union boss can easily make sure their people vote the "right" way if they want to keep their jobs.

    3. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      In mexico we require ID and put some ink on the persons thumb. it's kinda hard to remove. no impossible by any means, but I'm sure someone could come up with something harder to remove, that would last for a few days.

    4. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2

      Verifiable != public

    5. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I am on vacation in Nicaragua, they vote here by registering their cell phone number and calling in their vote, strangely enough the losers have a very difficult time getting contracts, especially if their business is linked to their phone.... secret votes are a good thing, but they need to be secure, thats the part we have gotten wrong.

    6. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This Ohio Republican representative got his license pulled because he was driving drunk. If the election was tomorrow he wouldn't be able to vote.

      He's the sponsor of a bill to require photo ID in order to vote.

      The sponsor of an Ohio bill which restricts access to the ballot box was arrested back in April on drunk driving charges while he had a 26-year-old woman in his car and Viagra in his system, according to police reports.

      On April 23, an Indiana state trooper pulled Rep. Robert Mecklenborg over for a burned out headlight on a 2004 Lexus he was driving. After failing three separate field sobriety tests, Mecklenborg allegedly refused to take a breath test and was placed under arrest. A blood test later revealed that he had recently taken a Viagra.

      Laws requiring photo ID to vote only exist to keep poor people from voting. Let's not bullshit, here. How did the United States last 235 years without requiring photo IDs to vote? How come we haven't had any scandals involving ineligible people voting despite the Bush Administration promising to make it a priority?

      If you want to do voter fraud by having ineligible people voting, it takes a lot of hard work. If you want to do it using electronic voting machines, it's trivial. How can you suggest that until we have laws keeping poor people from voting we shouldn't get rid of electronic voting? It's like ignoring the hole in the bottom of the boat because you want to make sure your captain's hat is on straight.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    7. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      someone != everyone

      That statement was made obsolete with the Internet.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    8. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by meerling · · Score: 2

      shhh! There's no such thing as Ninjas. And if you don't quiet down they might hear you and come and kill us all in the night... :)

    9. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      A blood test later revealed that he had recently taken a Viagra. Wow. Is that a non sequitur or what? Just what the hell are they screening for in Ohio?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    10. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by damiangerous · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Everyone is not you. A great many people are poor, unskilled, uneducated laborers and often immigrants. They're already easily abused by employers due to lack of knowledge of labor laws, lack of resources to do anything about it and/or fear of repercussions.

    11. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In Texas a Non-Driver Identification Card is $16 and expires in 6 years. If you are too poor to afford a car to bother taking/passing the driving test you can get just a regular ID.

      You can go to senior citizen homes and not find a single photo ID among the residents. To get one, they'd have to get their birth certificate, which might require a trip to their home town if they were born before 1955.

      Photo ID voter laws are only meant to keep poor people from voting. If you look through YouTube, you'll find Republicans admitting as much. Then there are the new residency requirements meant to keep students from voting.

      This is not about the integrity of elections. Exactly the opposite in fact.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by CapOblivious2010 · · Score: 2

      Also, lets say you live in a union town, but aren't particularly fond of unions or democrats so you vote republican. All your friends and neighbors and coworkers now know how you voted, and you end up being ostracized (or your tires mysteriously get slashed, or worse).

      Same in the other direction, of course - I'm not taking a position on Democans vs Republicrats., just pointing out that the above sort of pressure could easily induce people to vote how they think their friends/neighbors/coworkers want them to vote, instead of how they really want to vote.

    13. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by CapOblivious2010 · · Score: 2

      Question: how do you know fraud isn't taking place, if you refuse to even collect evidence that might indicate whether or not it is taking place?

      There have been any number of cases where the total vote count exceeds the number of registered voters in that district... What about those?

    14. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by The+Wild+Norseman · · Score: 5, Funny

      A blood test later revealed that he had recently taken a Viagra.

      Wow. Is that a non sequitur or what? Just what the hell are they screening for in Ohio?

      Erection fraud?

      --
      "A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
    15. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by suppo · · Score: 2

      Wow, +4, Insightful. Easy to see how the Mods are coming down on this topic. Fact checks:

      Everyone of your example's senior citizens is collecting Social Security, which has very strict requirements for identification. You can bet that either the senior citizen or one of their children has identification available.

      Although clichéd it's still true that dead people do vote in Chicago. So Photo ID voter laws are not only meant to keep poor people from voting.

      (And if you look through YouTube enough, you'll find just about anything you want.)

      --
      NON-geek Linux user since 1998
    16. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by berzerke · · Score: 2

      ...require state ID to vote.

      Having worked as an election clerk in more than one election, I can tell you that we are supposed to verify the ID (at least in Texas), but the voter registration card (no picture) is enough. Many do use their driver's license though. Personally, based on what I've seen, the weakness isn't the ID, it's the registration process. I've had people I honestly didn't believe were US citizens, one even admitted it to me, but as they were on the poll records, legally I had to let them vote. I've also seen voters that would fail the "You must be smarter than a rock" IQ test.

    17. Re:Good job on behalf of the hacker by anorlunda · · Score: 4, Informative

      Everyone of your example's senior citizens is collecting Social Security, which has very strict requirements for identification.

      What the hell are you talking about? I'm a senior collecting SS. I applied online and was then interviewed by phone. No scrap of ID was ever requested. I have a drop box snail mail address. I never needed to appear in person. All I needed was a SSN and an account for deposits.

  2. None of this (except the passwords)... by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...should be secret anyway. The only part of an election that should be secret is how each individual voted.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    1. Re:None of this (except the passwords)... by buchner.johannes · · Score: 2

      How is this leak related to the poll? Its just the poll workers -- a separate system from the voting machines -- so how does this affect voting security at all?

      Of course I agree that voting must be secret, integer, valid, transparent, accurate and reliable. Better use paper there, to allow independent verification.

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    2. Re:None of this (except the passwords)... by camperdave · · Score: 2

      Why do you need a machine to vote? Why not just pencil in an X next to the candidate's name like they do in other countries?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:None of this (except the passwords)... by compro01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why do you need a machine to vote? Why not just pencil in an X next to the candidate's name like they do in other countries?

      How is anyone supposed to profit from that kind of scheme?

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    4. Re:None of this (except the passwords)... by jc42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why not just pencil in an X next to the candidate's name like they do in other countries?

      Because that wouldn't produce income for the top people in the companies that make the electronic voting equipment. And, of course, those are people who have contributed to the re-election campaigns of the legislators who have promised to push electronic voting.

      Also, it's pretty well understood that secret, verifiable elections aren't exactly popular with "incumbent" legislators.

      Here in the US, we had that amusing case a couple of elections ago, where the CEO of Diebold (one of the main makers of electronic voting equipment) promised the Republicans in Ohio in writing that he would deliver Ohio to the Republicans in the next election. He delivered, too.

      Actually, I think the best comment on this issue was this story. (For the benefit of the whoosh-impaired, I'll point out that this is a satirical site. ;-)

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    5. Re:None of this (except the passwords)... by timholman · · Score: 2

      Why do you need a machine to vote? Why not just pencil in an X next to the candidate's name like they do in other countries?

      Umm, because in the rare circumstance that the difference in votes falls within the margin of error of spoiled ballots, the Democrats and Republicans begin a long drawn-out battle over who gets to count and interpret what those spoiled ballots mean? Like what happened 11 years ago in Florida during the U.S. presidential election?

      The switch to electronic voting didn't happen without a reason (at least in the U.S.) The intent was to eliminate spoiled ballots and determine to an absolute certainty who won the election. It didn't work out that way, but that was the idea.

      Of course, the federal and state governments screwed up electronic voting in their usual fashion, and now everyone is calling for a return to paper and punch ballots, which will work just fine - until the next big election that is very, very close. And then you'll hear the hue and cry for electronic voting again - lather, rinse, repeat ...

    6. Re:None of this (except the passwords)... by Joce640k · · Score: 2

      Why do you need a machine to vote? Why not just pencil in an X next to the candidate's name like they do in other countries?

      Because in a land of cable TV, you need the results *NOW!*. If you have to wait a few hours for bits of paper to be counted people will have forgotten there was even an election.

      --
      No sig today...
  3. To make a secure voting machine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's the whole point of these voting machines, make it easier and save time for the users. A punchcard reader/sorta could easily accomplish that. You got physical validity and you get time saving. People can still mail in votes and a database that keeps only people who have voted already (and not who voted for who) could keep track of duplicate votes which puts up a *flag* for that person. If they done it this way, a database breach means little without physical access to the cards or machine.

    What about dead people voting fraud and vote coercion for mail in votes? Stricter law enforcement and record keeping as those things already happens i suppose.

  4. Total non-sequitur by artor3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So the fact that he was able to access a list of voters is supposed to prove that votes are rigged? How exactly does that follow?

    Voter fraud is a non-existent problem. It's a bogeyman used to get people scared so that they agree to more restrictions on voting, which in turn disenfranchises those who might otherwise resist the powers that be. It also serves the double duty of de-legitimizing any political opponents. Don't like the incumbent? Call him an imposter, and that way you can scream hatred and bile against him at every moment, and your supporters won't question it, because you've given them a way to rationalize all the hate.

    1. Re:Total non-sequitur by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      First of all, votes are supposed to be confidential.

      Second, you don't need electronic voting to get fast results. Canada still uses paper ballots and they have their final results within 24 hours.

    2. Re:Total non-sequitur by rwven · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The point is that if he hacked in and and got this junk, someone could just as easily have gotten in and altered the data. I don't put it beyond corporations to under-the-table hire hackers to accomplish their end-goals (namely because I've seen it happen), and hacking a voter database is a pretty obvious target.

      And that's only the corporation side of things....

    3. Re:Total non-sequitur by mevets · · Score: 2

      Canadas federal ballots only have a single question: choose one of N candidates. Provincial ones are similar. Rarely you may get handed two ballots, one with a question of some burning issue. Municipal have more; often three ballots. Federal, Provincial and Municipal elections are always held on separate days.

      It is a lot easier to count these than the questionnaire that US voters are to fill out. I know you can just hit "party ticket", but they still have to be looked at.

    4. Re:Total non-sequitur by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Voter fraud is a non-existent problem.

      It's not quite non-existent. It's not hard to find residents of Chicago or Philadelphia who were part of political machines that regularly placed fraudulent votes. For instance, a common tactic was (maybe still is) to use dead people's names and addresses.

      However, efforts to restrict voting (at least in the US) have far more to do with disenfranchising poor people and black people than they do with any actual risk of fraud. For instance, photo ID requirements, a mere annoyance for middle-class white folks with a driver's license, are an insurmountable burden for members of the underclass that survive on public housing and food assistance. One tell-tale sign here is that the focus is on somebody who shows up to the polls and tries to cast a fraudulent vote, rather than the much easier ways of committing election fraud on a significant scale like manipulating the persons or machines responsible for counting the votes or effectively ballot-stuffing. If you were, say, a secretary of state with ties to a party's political campaign trying to commit election fraud, which would be easier - making a vulnerable voting machine and changing a number in Microsoft Access, or organizing hundreds of thousands of people to go to the polls and fraudulently casting votes?

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    5. Re:Total non-sequitur by MyFirstNameIsPaul · · Score: 2
      --

      I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.

    6. Re:Total non-sequitur by ohnocitizen · · Score: 3, Informative

      I can counter your right wing sources with left wing ones:

      http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/27/153179/report-from-poll-taxes-to-voter-id-laws-a-short-history-of-conservative-voter-suppression/
      http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/05/10711/voter-suppression-bills-sweep-country
      http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/06/voter-fraud-or-voter-suppression
      http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/15/voter_suppression

      While I do think there is some voter fraud in the modern era, and would point to Florida in the 2000 election and Ohio in 2004, it is often twisted and blown out of proportion to fuel a hysteria that we need to make it harder to vote. So we end up with laws that make it harder to vote for those who vote Democratic. I find it hard to believe that is an accident.

      What we need is a way to verify votes that does not end up constituting an effective poll tax, and keeping people who have a right to vote from the polls. I wonder if any slashdot readers have any suggestions? I'd be quite hopeful on that account, some rather clever people read this site and have left encouraging comments on past articles about voting.

    7. Re:Total non-sequitur by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For instance, photo ID requirements, a mere annoyance for middle-class white folks with a driver's license, are an insurmountable burden for members of the underclass that survive on public housing and food assistance.

      Pray, do tell, how people that are able to sign up and live off of the public dole, then become too stupid (or otherwise unable) to get a FREE photo ID. Make the photo ID part of the requirement to use these benefits, and you'll cut down on foodstamp fraud too. This whole idea about poor people unable to get ID (which can be verified) is a disingenuous strawman arguement. "insurmountable burden", my ass - just another reason to perpetuate voter fraud!

      --
      Chaos maximizes locally around me.
    8. Re:Total non-sequitur by misexistentialist · · Score: 2

      If everyone had to get a special voting ID the number of eligible voters would drop 90%. No one would bother to go through the bureaucracy and pay good money for the privilege to vote for two worthless parties.

    9. Re:Total non-sequitur by tyrione · · Score: 2

      For instance, photo ID requirements, a mere annoyance for middle-class white folks with a driver's license, are an insurmountable burden for members of the underclass that survive on public housing and food assistance.

      Pray, do tell, how people that are able to sign up and live off of the public dole, then become too stupid (or otherwise unable) to get a FREE photo ID. Make the photo ID part of the requirement to use these benefits, and you'll cut down on foodstamp fraud too. This whole idea about poor people unable to get ID (which can be verified) is a disingenuous strawman arguement. "insurmountable burden", my ass - just another reason to perpetuate voter fraud!

      Don't know which state you come from but a Personal ID is not FREE. It's $20 in Washington State. The Driver's License ranges from $25 to $50. Then of course you need proof of identity which requires a Notary Public Stamped Birth Certificate [another $25+ for the Notary Public stamp, and additional fee for the Birth Certificate at the Court House, plus you need to make sure your SS Card is on you to get the Birth Certificate. If you don't you have to go and have that, but if you are a homeless person I doubt you have much proof]. With 40% of the US in poverty that's one helluva a lot of disenfranchised voters. To answer your first statement, most people aren't signed up living off the public dole. The one's living off of their own invested Unemployment Insurance don't need a card. There are millions of homeless people who aren't on Welfare.

    10. Re:Total non-sequitur by Nimey · · Score: 2

      A $16 poll tax is still an illegal poll tax.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    11. Re:Total non-sequitur by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You are being disingenuous...
      Republicans are the ones with the strawman argument...

        The whole "I know you are but what am I" arguement doesn't work past the 5th grade.
      And I hardly think Chicago, widely known for voter fraud, is a Republican bastion. Want to try again?

      --
      Chaos maximizes locally around me.
    12. Re:Total non-sequitur by stdarg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So if we made a photo ID a requirement for public housing and food assistance, problem solved?

      I assume there are mechanisms to stop people from signing up for public housing and food assistance multiple times. If no ID is required, how are they enforcing that? Why not use the same mechanisms when it comes to voting?

    13. Re:Total non-sequitur by rastos1 · · Score: 2

      Personal ID is not FREE. It's $20 in Washington State.

      With 40% of the US in poverty that's one helluva a lot of disenfranchised voters.

      Are you saying that 40% of US voters can't afford to spend 20$ on photo ID? I call bullshit. Are you saying that they can't put together 20$ if given a month of time? Even if they don't buy a 2 packs of cigarettes, drink no alcohol, and beg on the street corner for 2 days? I call bullshit. If you are not right-away homeless, then don't go to restaurant (I wasn't for a year), don't go to cinema (I wasn't for 10 years), don't waste money on music (I bought a CD last time 15 years ago), don't throw away things just because they are not new and shiny anymore, and you can put together 20 bucks.

      The lifestyles of some people never stops to amaze me. They have mobile before having a shelter, and they have a satellite dish before a real house.

  5. This is public election data, not voting data by thesandbender · · Score: 3, Informative

    If anyone took 30 seconds to scan this scandalous "voting" data it's very apparent that this is data about the elections and not the actual voting or voters. All of this data can and should be public knowledge (e.g. Elections, Candidates, Races, what special interest groups are working the polls as well as voter statistics). A quick google search will give you almost all of this data because want it should be public knowledge.

    This would be a story if this data wasn't available.

    1. Re:This is public election data, not voting data by thesandbender · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm assuming you're not from the U.S. A "race" here is referring to the election and not the ethnicity of the person or person(s) involved. The literal translation in this sense in "contest"... i.e. the "race" to the finish line. You'll notice that there's a "race" lookup table which contains Sheriff, Councilman, etc. It's referring to those "contests", not black, white, asian, latino, etc.

    2. Re:This is public election data, not voting data by Nimey · · Score: 2

      It's also called a race because of our misbegotten "first past the post" system, wherein the person who gets the single largest bloc of votes wins.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
  6. Re:So what if pollworkers passwords are compromise by thesandbender · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're misunderstanding "poll workers"... these are lobby groups who are outside the polls trying to influence your votes, look at the pollworker_links table later in the dump. They're tracking who was there and who they represent... which is exactly what they should be doing. And yes, this data should be public (by law actually).

  7. Re:You know what this means by camperdave · · Score: 4, Funny

    How about the other way around? Tax everybody and then give them a refund if they show up to vote.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  8. are the fake felons still on the list? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2
  9. Re:No safe votes... by jc42 · · Score: 2, Funny

    We need a better system, like having all candidates participate as contestants on one of those crazy Japanese game shows. This would immediately disqualify Sara Palin, as she can't even find Japan on a map.

    Maybe not, but she can easily find it in real life. She just looks across her back fence, where she can see Russia, then looks zt the islands just to the left. Those are Japan.

    It's a lot harder on a map, y'know.

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  10. Need Slashdot usage advice by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2

    I'm sorry that this is off-topic, but I can't find any other forum to ask this.

    Starting a month or two ago, Slashdot is showing me very few postings when I read the discussions. It's not the rating filter; I've tried many different settings on that. I've tried both D1 and D2 discussion systems, and that doesn't help. I just want things to be the way they used to be.

    Is this a problem that many people are having, or have I done something uniquely stupid to my settings?

  11. reconsider your license choice? by KingAlanI · · Score: 2

    I don't think you want viral distribution of your penis and anything it gets involved with. ;)

    --
    I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
  12. Re:Eat my GPL'd penis! by Moryath · · Score: 3, Funny

    DO WHAT YOU WANT CAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE Public License.

    Version 1.0, November 22, 1718

    TERMS AND CONDITIONS
    0. Do what you want cause a pirate is free. You Are A Pirate.
    1. Yarr Harr Fiddle De Dee.
    2. Being a pirate is alright with me.
    3...

  13. Re:Nonsense; there ARE cross-checks, you know by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

    I would still say that it is possible, and looking into how bad the identity of people is checked and verified in the US I wouldn't be surprised if there is stuffing done anyway.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  14. Re:Eat my GPL'd penis! by boiert · · Score: 2

    4. Profit!