Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud, Experts Say

New York Times ^ | 7/24/03 | John Schwartz

[Amelia]

Our new voting system....

I was kind of partial to the old voting machines with the levers and the curtain myself...

[eddie willers]

I'm more modern.....
I liked the punch cards. :o)

[Search4Truth]

"You can argue about how many safe gaurds could be put into effect, The simple fact is that nothing is as secure as a paper trail...Even that not being perfect."

And you say that as you dialogue on a worldwide network of millions of connected computers, transacting billions of dollars in business a year. They should have used paper - its faster, more reliable and secure, don't you know.

America has the technology to send robotic probes about the Solar System, but cannot develop a reliable and secure voting system - got it!

We have ATM machines virtually everywhere in the world, dispensing billions of dollars a year, but can not develop a reliable and secure voting system - got it!

The problem with updating the voting system technology is not technological, it is political; neither side understands fully how to exploit the new system. So they error on the side of caution and oppose it.

I’m not saying that a change to a newer system should be made. The benefits of doing so are undefined. But the technologies for doing so are well established.

[Search4Truth]

"I used the word "hackers" loosely. What I intended to say is that it's a lot easier to change the figures in a computer than it is with a box of paper ballots. When you consider that billions of dollars are at stake in a national election, the stakes are just too high to trust anyone with that power."

Well, if we run the whole system from your PC, that could be the case. LOL :)

[Iris7]

Note my post #29, with this from Cringely:

Another interesting story appeared this week in my inbox from New Zealand claiming that Diebold voting machines in the U.S. (Diebold apparently makes most of the voting machines used in the U.S.) have major security flaws that allow manipulation of elections. These flaws are not so much hackable as they are designed into the system for deliberate manipulation of election results, claim the authors. I have no idea whether this claim is true or not, though the authors provided vast amounts of supporting evidence including source code. What is interesting to me is not so much that this could happen, but that we haven't read about it in the mainstream press. I didn't even bother investigating the story because it was sent to every reporter the authors could find. I figured that before I could verify anything the story would be in the Washington Post, yet it isn't. It isn't anywhere other than on a few obscure web pages and right here. It seemed to me to be newsworthy even if all the Post and the New York Times and the other big boys simply chose to debunk the story, yet they haven't done that

[North Coast Conservative]

Mark, et al,
I am not trying to be contentious, but I believe this is a different machine. Lake County Board of Elections has not issued smartcards to the registered voter base, we still go through the routine: Are you in the book? Do you still reside at this address? Etc, Etc

I'm not saying that the possibility of fraud does not exist in our county, or with the voting machines we have. But I do not think that the concerns outlined here pertain to our county's machines.

In God We Trust.....Semper Fi

[boxerblues]

But I do not think that the concerns outlined here pertain to our county's machines.

While we do use the electronic machines, they have been known to give erroneous results (or so we've been told) until they have been given the once over. I dont know if Lake County uses some sort of paper or other backup system

[Pontiac]

This is true. But other forms of computer vote fraud are availabble.

[Revel]

This is the result of electronic voting. Even if you believe it could be secure. It is not. We should not have gone there. Very detailed article:


http://www.americanfreepress.net/08_25_03/Concerns_Over/concerns_over.html