Ohio Secret Ballot Compromised - Methodology Exposed

[IChing]

June 28th, 2007

Press Release with Diagram (PDF)

Privacy expert James Moyer and data analyst Jim Cropcho have discovered a critical flaw in Ohio’s election system that represents a severe threat to the privacy rights of Ohio voters. Using public records, Moyer and Cropcho can demonstrate how to retrieve an individual’s cast ballot in several affected Ohio counties.

“The existence of this vulnerability represents a betrayal of Ohioans, who deserve to vote in security and confidence, free from concerns that secret ballots can become public knowledge,” Moyer said.

The technique takes advantage of the time stamps found on voting machine paper tapes in conjunction with the serial numbers assigned to the voters, which are recorded by the poll workers in the poll books.

“For all practical purposes, we can accurately decode ballots and match them to the voters in the affected counties, at a high level of accuracy, for 2006 voters and all future elections unless substantial changes are made,” Moyer says. As proof of concept, Moyer and Cropcho have decoded a precinct in Delaware County using public records, for an election held in March 2006. A chart, located in the accompanying press release PDF, is provided to explain the method graphically.

http://www.thepublicballot.org/2007/6/28/ohio-secret-ballot-compromised-methodology-exposed

[L. Coyote]

1. With punch card ballots, there are fingerprints on the ballot, a useful forensic tool

to determine what percentage of ballots were switched from one precinct to the other to alter who the vote counted for. And, by court order, the 2004 ballots are preserved and in the hands of the Ohio Secretary of State now. The trick, from a forensic point of view, is to make the determination w/o violating the right to a private vote. The determination has to be what percentage of the ballots were switched where, not how each ballot voted.

[IChing]

2. Maybe someone should post this in the election forum

thanks for the info.

[L. Coyote]

3. kick