New York Times: "Electronic Vote Faces Big Test of Security"

[flpoljunkie]

http://nytimes.com/2004/02/28/politics/campaign/28VOTE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

February 28, 2004

By JOHN SCHWARTZ

KENNESAW, Ga. — Millions of voters in 10 states will cast ballots on Tuesday in the single biggest test so far of new touchscreen voting machines that have been billed as one of the best answers to the Florida election debacle of 2000. But many computer security experts worry that the machines could allow democracy to be hacked.

Here in Georgia, along with Maryland and California, an estimated six million people will be using machines from Diebold Election Systems, which has been the focus of the biggest controversy.

Independent studies have found flaws in Diebold's system that researchers say might allow hackers or corrupt insiders to reprogram the touchscreens or computers that tally the votes, without leaving a trace.

Without a paper record of every vote or some other way to verify voters' choices after the fact, these experts warn, elections may lose the public's trust.

"People complain about hanging chads," said Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a co-author of the first study that found security flaws in the Diebold machines. "But if an electronic machine has malicious code in it, it's possible that all of the chads are hanging — and then you have to question every vote."

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