The Diebold Bombshell

[kpete]

July 23, 2006 at 12:58:03
The Diebold Bombshell
by David Dill, Doug Jones and Barbara Simons

http://www.opednews.com

Most computer scientists have long viewed Diebold as the poster child
for all that is wrong with touch screen voting machines. But we never
imagined that Diebold would be as irresponsible and incompetent as they
have turned out to be.

Recently, computer security expert Harri Hursti revealed serious
security vulnerabilities in Diebold's software. According to Michael
Shamos, a computer scientist and voting system examiner in
Pennsylvania, "It's the most severe security flaw ever discovered in a
voting system."

Even more shockingly, we learned recently that Diebold and the State of
Maryland had been aware of these vulnerabilities for at least two
years. They were documented in analysis, commissioned by Maryland and
conducted by RABA Technologies, published in January 2004. For over
two years, Diebold has chosen not to fix the security holes, and
Maryland has chosen not to alert other states or national officials
about these problems.

Basically, Diebold included a "back door" in its software, allowing
anyone to change or modify the software. There are no technical
safeguards in place to ensure that only authorized people can make
changes.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_di_060723_the_diebold_bombshel.htm

[Melissa G]

1. K&R! #5!

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. If people were hacking in the backdoor, wouldn't it involve many

computer programmers? One person couldn't do it all. Where do you go to find so many people trained in software programming? Would you use American sell-outs to do the job? Outsource it?

[Monkeyman]

4. They did Show one person doing it on CNN

[L. Coyote]

12. EASY?? program another computer to do the hacks at light speed ?? n/t

[Singular73]

13. You only need to compromise key machines in key districts.

Think about it.

[Canuckistanian]

18. For all we know

It could be done with ONE machine. One machine could be programmed with a "virus" that triggers the central tabulator to run secret code that spreads the virus to all other machines.

There are limitless possibilities when you realize that nodbody knows what's inside these machines.

Except for the maunufacturers themselves.

[The Backlash Cometh]

I'm thinking this job had better be outsourced, because, if we ever

find the American that did this to us, we'll make sure they get a criminal review.

[petgoat]

23. The old "conspiracy of thousands" argument, huh?

Well Clint Curtis told members of the House Judiciary Committee he could do it
all by himself. Software modules can be loaded from the tabulator to the
peripheral machines, flip the votes, then erase themselves and vanish without
a trace.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8112825559202389150&q=clint+curtis

[JAYJDF]

3. talk about terrorism! when are people going to start

going to jail over this overt effort leading to election fraud? It was planned. It was with malice. This has to fall under some law.

[jaysunb]

7. Jail time is what's needed !

I hope the new Democratic Congress will pass legislation that carries draconian penalties for this crime. It would make a person think long and hard before they get on board this kind of treasonous behavior.

[formercia]

9. RICO n/t

[peacetheonlyway]

16. agreed..

it's time for RICO...

we need rico all over diebold and choicepoint..

[valerief]

5. Diebold isn't irresponsible and incompetent. They're criminal. n/t

[MissWaverly]

6. Hey, I'm from Maryland, my machine was rigged to vote GWB

Hey, over here, please have a little of those accountability moments with a side order of
freedom fries, make it quick.

[Monkeyman]

8. 2004 President of Diebolt "Republican will win this election"

[flyarm]

10. hmm and this week the only witness for hearings in congress

for the minority dems was the woman dem who voted to keep diebold in maryland..does anyone have that article..i know i read it earlier in the week..and many were questioning ( and rightly so) why the dems put this woman on as their only witness..

this soooo stinks..and is sooooo criminal..when do we revolt??

i am sure ready!!

fly

[Cookie wookie]

11. Some articles on the hearing:

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1551&Itemid=26

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1562&Itemid=26

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1564&Itemid=26

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1553&Itemid=26

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1554&Itemid=26

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1550&Itemid=26

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1557&Itemid=26

[MissWaverly]

14. Oh, that's Senator Hollinger

I wrote a letter to her begging her not to support Diebold, her cheery reply: Diebold is the
BEST. Here's the scoop from True Vote Maryland

On March 16th, five weeks after HB244 had been unanimously adopted by the House, the Senate EHE Committee finally scheduled a hearing on SB713, the companion bill to HB 244. However, the committee did not report the bill out until April 5th, eight full weeks after the House action and less than one week before the legislature was mandated to adjourn. The EHE Chair, Senator Hollinger, who had initially introduced SB713, now stated her opposition to the House provision for precinct-based optical scanners this year, and delayed the voting on both bills. At first the Senator excused her actions by arguing that the Governor would never fund the lease; not long after the Governor twice offered funds for the optical scanner lease. The first was $21.8 million; the second was $28 million.

Activists, growing impatient with the stalling on the part of the committee chair, started to canvass in Senator Hollinger's neighborhood to collect petitions and distribute information, in an effort to urge Senator Hollinger to pass the legislation.

On the last day of session, when the bill came up Senator Currie asked that they hold off on voting for the bill until the end of session. The bill never came back onto the floor.

http://truevotemd.org/content/view/465/82/

[MissWaverly]

15. my letter to Senator Hollinger

Senator Hollinger, I tried to vote for John Kerry in the 2004 election in Baltimore City,
I saw my machine default to George W. Bush 5 times. To this day, I believe that
my attempt to vote to elect John Kerry resulted in 5 phantom votes for George W.
Bush and zero votes for Kerry. Every month I have sent money in a Democracy
Bond to support the Democratic Party, and I have also supported the DLCC and
the Maryland Democratic Party. It saddens me that you have taken a position that
puts Diebold before the best interests of the Maryland voter.
Sincerely,
Miss Waverly

[Cookie wookie]

17. Great letter. n/t

[MissWaverly]

19. Thanks Cookie Wookie

every letter is a little breeze that stirs the great ship of state

[rumpel]

21. 5 phantom votes...

I did not realize..I assumed that unless you click submit...and when you cancel and go back to vote again...
thanks for the eye opener - until now, I always thought of invisible random additions and substraction inside the machine...

hmmmm....:think:

[MissWaverly]

33. well, I thought of it because so many people said the same thing

the machine defaulted 5 in Maryland, Florida, Ohio and Washington State. Someone said that if
you had a machine default with 5 phantom votes per precinct that would give a margin
of 100,000 per state depending on the population.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

31. Election director calls Diebold critics "fanatical"

This election director, a registered democrat,
said that we were "fanatical".
His Board members also called us "email spammers".
:rofl:

George Nixon Gilbert, democrat and Director of Guilford County NC Elections:
12/24/2005 High Point Enterprise. Company Root of Controversy- by David Nivens, staff writer.
Gilbert calls the Diebold critics “fanatical.”
“These machines are used in states from Georgia to California,” Gilbert said.
“Diebolds are just as reliable as other machines.
They all use the same software and they all have software errors.”

Sorry that I don't have a link for this article, because the newspaper does
a sort of funky set up where there are no links -
you have to sign in, and you click on the picture.

After 2 weeks the article is GONE.

By the way, if Diebold hadn't left, we believe they would have sold about 2/3
of the state.

[fooj]

20. Make some room for me.

I'm in!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[BeFree]

22. Dieboldicide

All the Vote.orgs need to take a total anti-Diebold stance.

Give no quarter to Diebold. Diebold Election Systems needs to be totally eliminated.

The various groups need to come down hard on Diebold with articles like this on their front pages.

[pauldp]

24. Yes. Diebold has ABSOLUTELY LOST THE RIGHT

TO BE INVOLVED IN OUR
ELECTORAL PROCESS IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER.

Be it DREs with no paper, DREs with paper, Central
tabulators or ANY voting equipment - Diebold must go...PERMANENTLY.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

25. Let's not forget that Diebold isn't the only perpetrator.

It's easy to attack Diebold, but any solution must be industry-wide. It was a rep from Triad who tampered with a computer and posted a "cheat sheet" for the Hocking County (OH) BOE during the 2004 recount (and the Dem BOE member was fired for reporting the illegal activity). Wasn't it ES&S machines that produced those queer results in Comal County, TX, with 18181 votes in 3 different races?
Let's not let Diebold be their scapegoat. The election process should be transparent, not invisible.

[petgoat]

29. Don't forget Sequoia Systems bribed a Louisiana election

official $10 million worth. Also a mob-connected employee
turned up dead at one of their warehouses.

[AtomicKitten]

26. I was on a panel with Dr. Dill

in Monterey on the topic of election fraud via electronic voting machines in early 2003. I was invited after I wrote an article about this after the 2002 election when the anomalies were so glaring.

This info has been out there for four years now and it frustrates me to the point of wanting to scream that the insanity of an unsecured vote prevails.

[TiredNow]

27. kick

The people have got to know about this stuff!!

[eek]

28. So many bombshells yet so little seems to go anywhere

how is this sh*t stopped when it doesn't get reported upon?
when investigations get little attention and weak turnout?

call me cynical....onna counta i am.

[petgoat]

30. I quit listening to NPR when they refused to cover the

election irregularities story in the fall of 2001.

A couple of months ago my mom told me they did a voting machine story,
that described how "they're taking care of the problem."

So NPR presents a story that says "They're taking care of that little
problem that we never told you about, but just in case you heard about
it somewhere else than here, you should know that it's under control."

(Sorry I'm imagining a story I never heard myself, but so be it.)

This led me to a theory about the media silence on electoral integrity
issues. They fear that a lack of confidence in vote counts will make
people cynical about democracy, so maintaining an illusory confidence
is a civic duty. Commercial media are also reluctant to report, if they
don't have to, stories that might depress consumer confidence. Their job
is not only to deliver consumers to the sponsors' spots, but to deliver
wealthy shoppers to the sponsors' spots.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Wilms]

34. Nice list. Often posted. And now, in part, a bit out-of-date. n/t

#'s 2, 3, 4, 9, and 16 all need an update.

Hopefully, one will be posted.