Knocking the Vote:Diebold says its voting machines are bulletproof.Hack-

[Algorem]

ers say otherwise.

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2005-10-19/news/news.html

By James Renner

Published: Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Ion Sancho wants to get things right this time. As supervisor of elections for Leon County, Florida, he stood at the epicenter of the election fiasco of 2000. Voter confidence, he realizes, is paramount. That's why he's let a computer hacker have a go at one of his new machines.

The apparatus in question is the Accuvote 2000 Optical Scan, a boxlike computer that reads ballots as they are inserted. The data is collected and stored on a memory card that's later uploaded into a central tabulator. Diebold, the machine's Canton-based manufacturer, claims that the memory cards cannot be altered to influence votes. Sancho figured he'd find out for himself.

In May, he gave Dr. Herbert Thompson access to an Accuvote 2000. As hackers go, Thompson doesn't quite fit the mold of a pasty-faced kid playing Warcraft in Mom's basement: He's the chief strategist at Security Innovation, a Florida tester of online security for IBM, Microsoft, Google, and other large businesses and government agencies. If anyone can uncover a problem, it's this guy.

But not even Thompson could have expected this: He was able to manipulate a memory card using homemade devices. When he inserted it into the Diebold machine, 10,000 votes were awarded to one candidate, and the Accuvote detected no sign of fraud...

[aquart]

1. I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

[kster]

2. Kick.Recommended.nt

[Demeter]

3. I Didn't Realize That Being Bullet Proof Was Part of the Design Specs!

[brentspeak]

4. Bulletproof? Is there someone inside the machine?

Some guy inside pushing "R" every other time a voter enters "D"?

[wakeme2008]

5. About as bullet proof as Mr Gate's Windows

:rofl: :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Omaha Steve]

6. Black Box & Bev

When Bev isn't upsetting people, she has a point we all need to remember. I live in Nebraska. Hagel owns many machines nationwide that will count his votes when he runs for President in 2008!

[me b zola]

11. I still think that Hagel is a neo-con sleeper

He is one sly fox that we need to keep our eye on. I think it is he who will get the nod for '08.

[struggle4progress]

7. Typo: should read "machines are ballot-proof." eom

[BeFree]

8. An Honest vote keeper

Cheers for Ion, he's got what it takes to make sure votes get counted correctly. That's all we are asking, assurance that the vote is counted correctly. That's not too much too ask, is it?

[Joanne98]

9. When you've sold rigged software to 156 different countries

I GUESS YOU HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

10. Diebold's machines being...

......hack proof (unlikely) or not is beside the point. They collect and tabulate the votes without independent accuracy verification at the precinct (collection) level, and no redundancy checks by an independent body at the tabulation level. We simply have to take their word for everything. If someone had told me ten years ago that our electoral process would evolve into this, I would've thought they were nuts, and promptly informed them that the American people would NEVER stand for it. This is a nightmare come true and unless we stop it, it will mean the end of our republic as we know it. Welcome to the Korporate Republik of Amerika.

[rainidame]

12. I am just glad someone is thinking to test the damned things. . .

and to provide valuable proof that electronics with private coding isn't the way to run an election. But I don't read IF he is going to disallow the machines or what? I mean if I found it to be defective the news would read, "Diebold machines banned in my county". Why do they continue to jack with these guys once they are proven frauds. . . .

Here we had a huge 911 overhaul to a new slick system, two years and something like 800,000$'s later, they reinstalled the old system, but what amazed me is that they went ahead and paid the company whose system failed miserably. Tax dollars, who cares.

[vj68]

13. KICK

:dem:

[newyawker99]

22. Hi vj68!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[msongs]

14. what evidence shows the democratic party INC cares about this? nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

19. They definately know about it.

I'm hung up on your use of the word "cares."

:shrug:

[Roland99]

15. (Black Knight voice:) "I'm Invincible!"

"You're a loony."

[Viva_La_Revolution]

16. "bullet proof" ? Is that why Homeland Security's website says...

that there is a "no patch available" for a little problem with the software?

Bradblog had it weeks ago...
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001838.htm

Even Homeland Security says there is a problem :wow:

[99Pancakes]

17. The Co. name starts with DIE

That tipped me off right away. Who masterminded that one? Let's call it DIE...no, wait! Let's DIE boldly if we're gonna DIE! Hey, let's call it DieBold! Ha! That's it.

[fshrink]

18. And he was an outsider.

Imagine the difficulty for an insider. But of course, Diebold is known for its political impartiality.

[AntiFascist]

20. Keep in mind that this is an optical scan system....

which people may generally believe are safe, but the central tabulators are the weak links. No wonder Diebold's stock is still down about 30% from its highs since mid-September:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=DBD&t=1y

[mainegreen]

21. No such beast as 'hack-proof' nt.

[Uncle Joe]

23. This is impossible!

It is a computer, they make no mistakes.:sarcasm:

[0rganism]

24. Bulletproof is nice. At least no one can damage the machines with gunfire

Really, that's probably the best reason to use Diebold machines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[tom_paine]

25. Disaster...this is so over

Amerika is now COVERED with these vote-eating things.

Ohio now. Naturally, Busheviks are on point for every incursion, evry destruction of the mechanisms of democracy.

Well, Ohio will never be voting Democratic again. Even if it tries to.

51-49, woopsie. We got the undecideds again. Wow, you guys just can't seem to get any traction. Funny that where we go electronic Republican total victory just seems to follow.

It's over. Every Bushevik Imperial candidate STARTS with at least three states irrevocably and 100% in their pocket due to Touschsreen "Voting"...Florida, Georgia, and Ohio.

That is simply too much to overcome, given the now-illegality of being able to have law enforcement inpsect the code.

We now live in a badly rigged "Amerikan Emperor" Reality Show.

I hope and pray I am wrong.

But I am right.

I do believe that 2006 and 2008 will in fact, prove conclusively, that the Old Republic of America is gone and now forever a One-Party State of the Bush Imperial Confederacy.

NOTE: I am NOT counseling giving up! While there remains even the faintest hope (and there does remain so) then we MUST get out in 2006-2008 just in case the System is working better than it looks right now.