In Controlled Test, Results Are Manipulated in Florida System

[dajoki]

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

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

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.

Then, in a warehouse a few blocks from his office in downtown Tallahassee, Sancho and seven other people held a referendum. The question on the ballot: "Can the votes of this Diebold system be hacked using the memory card?"

Two people marked yes on their ballots, and six no. The optical scan machine read the ballots, and the data were transmitted to a final tabulator. The result? Seven yes, one no.

[Catch22Dem]

1. Well, getting it in the news is step one.

Now we need to get our elected officials to DO something about it. Or were they actually elected? Hmmmmmm.

[dajoki]

2. very possible n/t

[bleever]

3. This the news, til everyone knows it and is acting on it. nt

[mzmolly]

4. Excellent that this is getting much needed press.

:toast:

[dajoki]

7. this is the only place i saw it n/t

[fearnobush]

5. Fuck You pig media - Your a few years too late and a democracy short

of freedom. You have denied the nation the truth and have enabled the greatest coup of our nation to continue.

[Wilms]

6. kick