BradBlog: Here We Go Again - Vote As Many Times As You Want On Sequoia Machines

[Hissyspit]

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3714

BLOGGED BY Brad ON 11/2/2006 3:32AM
HERE WE GO AGAIN: 'Just Push the Yellow Button and Vote as Many Times as You Want' on Sequoia Touch-Screen Voting Machines!
New Vulnerability Discovered on Touch-Screen Systems Made by One of Country's Largest Voting Machine Companies Will Affect Elections in Dozens of States!

California's Secretary of State Bruce McPherson Denies Knowledge of Vulnerability Well After His Office Had Been Notified…

"Just push the yellow button and you can vote as many times as you want," Tom Courbat, an Election Integrity advocate from Riverside County, California informed The BRAD BLOG tonight. Not that we're in any mood to report more such stories, but this seems to be a big one. A very big one.

It seems there's a little yellow button on the back every touch-screen computer made by Sequoia Voting Systems, that allows any voter, or poll worker, or precinct inspector to set the system into "Manual Mode" allowing them to cast as many votes as they want.

Concerns about the flaw were first reported some thirty days ago to California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson's office by Ron Watt, a Tehama County, CA precinct inspector who has been a poll worker in the county for the last fifteen years. And yet, as recently as a radio interview last Tuesday, McPherson — who has been crowing about having the country's most stringent security process for voting systems — denied he was aware of any security issues with Sequoia systems.

"They didn't care about it," Watt told us tonight about his "late September or early October" discussion with McPherson's voting systems chief Bruce McDannold. "He said he didn't think it was an important issue. He said I don't believe this is really a vulnerability."

MUCH MORE AT LINK

[gfnrob]

1. Just put..

a sign in the booth telling voters to not touch "the yellow buton". That should take care of this.

[MsKandice01]

2. Oh.My.God...

I have no words...

[kestrel91316]

3. F - - k. Does anybody here think RWers won't take this and RUN with it

down to each and every voting booth with an e-voting machine in it. Behind that curtain they can vote as many times as they want. We are in big trouble if that's the case. They are evil enough to do it.

[democrat_patriot]

4. So can Dems.

So if you find one, do it.

[tridim]

6. No, don't "do it"

Unless of course you want to be charged with a federal crime and made a scapegoat for the GOP to exploit.

[nashville_brook]

8. jeez --

this is serious. if this can happen on the "front-end" of the machine... imagine what happens on the back-end.

[kestrel91316]

22. Well, I voted absentee, so no dice. Besides, I actually have a

little respect for the law, unlike the RW.

[tridim]

5. I want to know the true function of the yellow button

Is it there just to make it possible to vote multiple times? Is it a power switch? A reset switch? Is it just there to tempt some people to push it so the Republicans can claim fraud?

I want answers dammit!

Why in the hell would there be ANY button on the outside of the machine. It's just insane to even ponder.

[MGD]

7. Ohioans will be using Hart InterCivic models. No Sequoia machines here afaik. nt

[nashville_brook]

10. actually, Hart machines used in only TWO counties

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/2197/44254.html

Diebold Accuvote machines look to be the dominant player (47 counties) and ES&S optical scanners (28 ounties).

[MGD]

11. So I guess you can probably narrow down which county I live in, huh? nt

[Whoa_Nelly]

9. Sequoia machines beep if button is pushed...however...

(Read down to the bolded {mine} part of this article snip.)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_sara_sca_061007_rampant_voter_fraud_.htm

<snip>

3. Sequoia screens are required to have their power cords daisy-chained, forming a de facto network that third parties can use to tap into the machines, or have the machines communicate with each other.

This third point bothered me because I have heard several times that these machines are in no way connected, yet, they are all hooked together to one cord that is plugged into the power source, so how can they not be connected? These machines also have modems in them, which is completely unnecessary, unless they want to interact with one another; if this is not illegal, it certainly should be.

After the authors of the Snohomish work looked over the many discrepancies concerning the Sequoia machines, they requested a copy of the owner's manual from the company. The company outright refused to give the manual over, even resorting to threaten litigation.

However, the authors did receive a copy of the Snohomish pollworker's guide, and a troubleshooter's guide for the machine's operation. This is how it works: a card activation machine is used to activate a card that tells the touch screen that the person is authorized to vote, and it brings up the pre-programmed ballots in it's memory for the voter in that precinct. However, in Section XIII of the Troubleshooter's Guide shows a manual mode which gets around the security measures; see Appendix D, copy of excerpt of Troubleshooter's Manual.

The Manual tells workers how to activate manual code by pressing a color coded button twice. A soft beep is heard, and the manual warns that the worker must observe the voters to make sure that ONLY ONE VOTE PER VOTER IS RECORDED. In other words, while in manual mode, voters and/or technicians can vote as many times as they want, provided that nobody is around to hear the "soft" beep. (3)

[Ohio Joe]

15. I've never seen one of these but...

Having their power cords daisy chained would not create any type of network that would allow communication from a third party, neither data nor the programs use power cords. As for the modems, I would expect they are used to send totals to a central server, outbound data only.

I'm not saying these machines are safe/secure methods of voting (this button business seems very troubling), just that the problem will not come from the power cord and probably not the modem (the modem might allow incoming data and that would be a major flaw).

[karlrschneider]

18. It's easy to send data from one device to another on the AC line.

Common and quite old technology, e.g. the X-10 gadgets.
Not sure what "daisy chained" means exactly though.

[Ohio Joe]

21. Daisy chained

This would be one machine plugged into the next. The first machine into the second, second into third, etc, and the last plugged into the wall.

X-10 type of technology, as I understand it, might allow the machine to send instruction out (assuming the X-10 software is installed) but it would not allow the wall socket to access the machine. It still might be possible for there to be another computer hooked into the same line as the machine but the machine would still have to have compatible software to receive and process the data.

[karlrschneider]

23. Yeah, I understand the general idea of daisy chaining but don't see

why it would be necessary or even very beneficial. The RF over AC signals will propagate easily
throughout the wiring in a home or building until they hit a transformer. We have several to control
lights, fans and so on. I gave our neighbor a couple of sets a while back and forgot to set them
to a different code...for a while we were turning on and off each others' lights. ;-)
The software wouldn't be any more complicated than a normal computer serial device driver.

[Whoa_Nelly]

20. It's the reset vote button that beeps am pointing out here

someone has to be nearby to hear it.

[tiptoe]

12. McPherson's a scoundrel, like the governor who nominated him nt

[ourvoicescount]

13. Holy F... It seems so obvious...

Goes right along with this C-Span poll I was sent this morning about trust in the vote.

http://www.capitalnews.org/

Are you confident in the accuracy of vote counts?

Yes - 19%
No - 81%

758 Votes thus far

[tiptoe]

14. K&R!

[ThoughtCriminal]

16. A "Freeping" Yellow Button!

What? me worry? - McPhreepson

[keepCAblue]

17. Tomorrow I'll be getting my training as an election inspector

It'll be interesting to see if the yellow button issue is mentioned in the training and, if so, how they'll address it.

[KansDem]

19. "Battle of the thumbs!"

Democracy now has come down to who can push the yellow button more times. I can see it now, election officials attempting to drag a "voter" away while he holds onto the machine pushing the yellow button repeatedly...

"I'M VOTIN' HERE!!! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M VOTIN' HERE???"

I give up my voting machine when they pry it from my cold, dead thumb