Reply #21: You make it sound difficult to re-write Diebold source code. It's not.

[Peace Patriot]

All it takes is a couple of lines of self-erasing code, and one insider hacker. Diebold MANUFACTURES the machines, and does the servicing and upgrades. WE never get to see this code--not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it. A third of the machines nationwide have NO paper trail at all (touchscreens). Others (optiscans) have a paper ballot that gets dumped into a box-- thus separating the vote from the evidence of the vote--and the actuall ballot is almost never seen again. Recounts are extremely rare. Many states have NO audits; others have very inadequate and manipulable audits.

Made to order for fraud.

Read the descriptions of lever machines above (rpgamerd00d, atman) and below (Hockey Mom). If there is something blocking your vote, you know it. The lever won't go down. It's a mechanical device. Problems are obvious. There is a mechanical counter for the number of voters. And these machines have been used in states for years and years--with no suspicions of machine fraud that I've ever heard about. The RESULTS have clearly been generally in line with expectations (pre-election polls, for instance), and, very important, have long term voter trust. The only part of the system that seems fiddable to me is the paper tape of proceedings that is removed and stored. But if the results are announced immediately, taken from the machine recordings, that would greatly lessen any possibility that the tapes could be altered.

I can see why NY is hanging onto this system. Sometimes it serves to be CONSERVATIVE and to do things the way they have always been done, because it's always worked well.

Trade secret code is a RADICAL change--and one with a no-brainer, INHERENT flaw. That it's SECRET!

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Many thanks to rpgamerd00d, atman and Hockey Mom for enlightenment about the lever machines. Do you know if electronics are involved at the point of centralized tabulation? Do people actually attend to the machine results announcement (write down the results and compare to electronically tabulated totals)?