Reply #83: Well first...

[skids]

Keep in mind that the vendors are often the ones doing the programming, as part of a packaged setup and install service.

I don't understand, though, why you think machines would have to be put in a particular precinct? A security flaw is a security flaw. All you need is to figure out the phone number of the accumulator, hack it, and tell it to hack any tabulators that dial in. Heck, the vendors would probably even be able to get away with putting "dial home" operations into the tabulators/accumulators under the pretense of "turnkey maintainance", given the extent to which BOEs seem to completely misunderstand security issues. We already know some of them offer a complete package that includes web hosting of the returns -- when and how they get the data to their webhost, we don't quite know yet, but they get it pretty early.