Reply #1: Diebold Gets Free Passes In Both California And North Carolina?

[Wilms]

Diebold Gets Free Passes In Both California And North Carolina?

December 1st, 2005

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Meanwhile, it looks like Diebold is similarly getting preferential treatment in California as well. In this case, the Secretary of State originally invited some e-voting reform advocates to hack the Diebold machines. As we stated at the time, there are problems with this (putting the burden of proof on the hackers, rather than Diebold), but at least it suggested that the Secretary of State understood there were problems facing electronic voting.

However, having invited and confirmed that the group would be a part of this hack test, the Secretary of State proceeded to stop responding to emails and then deny that the event was happening when he had promised. He later made vague statements about maybe doing a test sometime in the future.

However, according to another site, instead of holding this hack test, it looks like the Secretary of State held a special summit on e-voting that apparently shut out many e-voting reform advocates, while stocking many panels with only supporters of existing e-voting machines. It sounds like a few reform advocates, such as Avi Rubin did attend -- so it wasn't entirely one-sided. However, it looks like the discussions were geared more towards listening to what the e-voting machine makers had to say, rather than what the reform advocates had to say. Reform advocates who tried to register were turned down, even though seats tickets were available.

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Update: On this California story, it was clear that the only report we saw was one sided -- put forth by those who were unable to attend. However, Joe Hall, who did attend, points out that the summit was much more balanced than the initial report suggested, and he felt that the important issues were raised. That's good news.

snip/links to related articles

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20051201/1548203_F.shtml