Electronic Voting Machines Receive Scrutiny As Elections Near

[kurth]

As Elections Near, Officials Challenge Balloting Security
In Controlled Test, Results Are Manipulated in Florida System
By Zachary Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 22, 2006; A06

As the Leon County supervisor of elections, Ion Sancho's job is to make sure voting is free of fraud. But the most brazen effort lately to manipulate election results in this Florida locality was carried out by Sancho himself.

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. Sancho's most recent demonstration was last month. Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, manipulated the "memory card" that records the votes of ballots run through an optical scanning machine...

Questions about the security of electronic voting machines have been circulating widely in recent years. But many of the concerns have been dismissed as the fantasies of Internet conspiracy theorists or sore-loser partisans who could not accept that their candidates simply got fewer votes. Critics have not demonstrated that any real elections have had returns altered by the manipulation of electronic voting systems. But the questions raised by Sancho, who has held his post since 1989, show how the concerns are being taken more seriously among elections professionals.

<snip>

Diebold took a dim view of the experiments. On June 8, a senior company lawyer faxed Sancho: "You have willfully and intentionally allowed the manipulation of memory cards related to your elections. . . . We believe this to have been a very foolish and irresponsible act."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012101051.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. It's...

[Peace Patriot]

2. a bit late...

[Peace Patriot]

3. to be shutting...

[Peace Patriot]

4. the barn door...

[Peace Patriot]

5. don't you think...

[Peace Patriot]

6. WaPo?

[elizm]

7. I agree...

...I think it's too late to prevent it from happening in 2006. But my mission is to try and get the word out there, make everyone aware, so that when it happens this time, people will see it for what it is. I will take whatever press coverage we can get...even if it is too late. I have no doubt that they are going to steal it again in 2006.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Agreed! I was just struck, once again, by the war profiteering corporate

news monopolies' anti-journalism--their colluding with the election thieves, by FALSIFYING their own exit polls, on Nov. 2, 2004, to force the exit polls (Kerry won) to "fit" the results of Diebold's "trade secret," proprietary vote tabulation (Bush won), their black-holing of information on the insecurity and hackability of the new electronic voting systems, and on who controls them, prior to the election, and their black-holing of information on the inevitable result of Bushite corporations controlling the election system--another stolen election--and their coming upon the news that Diebold systems are hackable, as if it were some surprise.

The gaping holes in this news story are yet another example of how Wapo and brethren have totally screwed the American people. Holes like the mind-boggling non-transparency of Diebold and ES&S election theft machines. Holes like WHO the people are, behind Diebold and ES&S (major Bush donors and funders of far rightwing causes). Holes like who was behind the $4 billion federal boondoggle that entirely corrupted our election system (Tom Delay). Etc. Etc. Etc.

The American people have been figuring this out for themselves, entirely without WaPo's help, and in spite of the "Iron Curtain" that WaPo and the other war profiteering corporate news monopolies placed over this subject. I am not sure that their belated, "horse is already out of the barn" so-called "news" stories are all that much help. One, they are trying to create an ILLUSION that they are responsible news agencies--when nothing could be further from the truth; and two, they are trying to convey a cozy, warm feeling that this matter is being taken care of.

The discovery of gaping holes in the security of these election theft machines has been done entirely without the help of U.S. corporate news monopolies--by the relentless hard work of activists and techies over a long period of time. The CONVEYANCE of this information to other Americans has occurred by word of mouth and by the internet, entirely without their help. The challenges to these election theft machines that are occurring all over the country have arisen in spite of their black-holing of this all important news story. Developments like Debra Bowen's election system hearings in the Calif Senate, Ion Sancho's investigations, and many other such hopeful signs, have all occurred without the help of the country's major news organizations. And the analysis of the fraudulent 2004 election--that has spurred this amazing grass roots election reform movement--has occurred entirely without their help, and in spite of their universal ridicule, and relentless marginalization and black-holing of the the most important news story in the history of this Republic.

Their behavior has been dastardly. They are very, very corrupt. And we should be wary of them now. They are trying to seem like they are "on top of it." It's yet more B.S.--of the he said/she said variety--and a smooth, slick bit of cooptation. Just beware, is all I'm saying. Yes, we should use them (the war profiteering corporate news monopolies) strategically, and with eyes open, for whatever their "news" might be worth--as we should use ANY tool we can to restore our right to vote. But I really mean this: with eyes open. We need to beware of giving them any leash at all to spin this story and bury it once again. And we should redouble our efforts to get the unspun facts to the American people.

The Washington Post DOES NOT WANT US TO RESTORE OUR RIGHT TO VOTE. Eyes open!