Reply #22: Aarrgh that picture. Hairdresser and a diet needed - but in general

[BevHarris]

the article was much more balanced than I expected. He did a lot of work, but did miss something very VERY important: The Scoop article published a link to a download site for the Diebold files. That single act has led to sweeping changes.

And one more thing was ironic: I started calling Ellen Hanson and Dow Constantine of King County to set up a demo of the rig, and explain to them some of the security risks we face here. They studiously avoided talking to me at all, even after I issued a public challenge on the radio, twice.

One day before the Seattle Times article, Ellen Hanson suddenly decided she wanted to meet with me. The way she wants to do it is to pack a room with her people, and computer techs, and have me come down alone. I mentioned that I'd be bringing a computer person too, then, since I am not a programmer. She didn't sound excited about that at all.

They also didn't mention that I demonstrated the Microsoft Access hack in front of a photographer, the reporter, and the Seattle Times tech guy. It was displayed on a big screen and they took a bunch of photos. The computer guy was in position, so I actually directed him through it. He started out saying in his opinion it was fine to use MS Access, if set up correctly. By the time I had him overwrite and add passwords and started guiding him into overwriting votes, he turned somewhat green and asked to leave.

(I would bet he's got the Seattle Times set up on MS Access).

The demonstration went beautifully and the photographer said, "Wow, that proves you can rig an election."

That was indeed the whole point of the story. They left it out.

A similar demonstration has now been done before the press in California, and another will soon follow in Georgia. Perhaps the Seattle Times was not the right venue. Perhaps CNN?

Go DemActivist!