The Red Brick Times

"Hacking Democracy," an HBO documentary that questions the integrity of Diebold voting machines, is scheduled to air tonight. Diebold's response? They insist that it be canceled. Nothing like a little censorship I always say. Moot point to me though. I can't afford cable anyway. If you're in my boat (welcome aboard matey!) you can get the bird's eye lowdown by reading a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machines, by the Center for Information at Princeton University and "Will The Next Election Be Hacked?" by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Happy voting mookies.
Posted 10:23 AM by whatley (4) comments

       Comments:

Oops, almost forgot. Here's a little local Cuyahoga County flavor: "how million-dollar equipment and security safeguards can quickly be undone by poor product design, improper election procedures and inadequate training". Pesky humans.

# posted by  whatley : November 02, 2006 10:56 AM
 
I am disturbed by the fact that the state of my birth (I don't mean naked and wet) and the state of my current existence (I don't mean altered and confused) are notable players in the voting manipulation strategy. I remain discouraged and disheartened. Do I have any company?

# posted by  Terri S : November 02, 2006 6:52 PM
 
Absentee ballot regulations have been recently broadened so that pretty much anyone, for any or no reason, can request to vote that way. Indications are that the response has been huge. Probably due to peoples' dislike of electronic voting, especially in Northern Ohio after the primary debacle. We're being told that results won't be official, and in some close races not even be guessed at, until 10 days after voting ends.

# posted by  whatley : November 02, 2006 9:38 PM
 
Diebolt maintains that the information in the HBO documentary is erroneous and based on information several years old, that their system is "hackproof", and that they were named as being responsible for software errors (counting 40% of the vote incorrectly) in 2000 by a company that they did not purchase until 2002. Diebold says that they were never consulted about the movie, and that HBO made changes to their web site information after Diebolt sent letters of complaint. The film producers claim that they never made thos claims in the first place.

The fact remains that when I voted in May, the poll workers were disorganized and confused about the electronic cards with the gold contact pads that enabled me to vote. The cards are programmed with a code via a hand-held keypad (a manual process) after the voter's elegibility is established (a manual process using books and papers and picture ID). Then the machines accept my input (a manual process) and a paper tape is made inside the machine (to be counted manually) to back up the electronic data cards that are (manually) carried to the Board of Elections, where they are (manually) inserted into computers (manually programmed and re-programmed) to give the final tally, which is (manually) reported to the world.

So of course it is hackproof. It is not as if people are involved or anything, right?

# posted by  Andy : November 03, 2006 9:48 AM
 
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