Voting system said to fail

[kster]

Voting system said to fail
Hacking changed outcome, asserts Florida county
By Associated Press | December 16, 2005

TALLAHASSEE -- Tests on an optical-scan voting system used around the country indicated it is vulnerable to hacking that can change the outcome of races without leaving evidence of fraud, a county election supervisor said
The voting system maker, Diebold Inc., sent a letter in response that questioned the test results and said the test was ''a very foolish and irresponsible act" that may have violated licensing agreements.

Company spokesman David Bear did not return a phone call yesterday seeking comment.

Optical-scan machines use paper ballots in which voters fill in bubbles to mark their candidates. The ballots are then fed into scanners that record the selections.

In one of the tests conducted for the election supervisor for Leon County, Ion Sancho, and an election-monitoring group, BlackBoxVoting.org, the researchers were able to get into the system easily, make the loser the winner, and leave no trace of the changes, said Herbert Thompson, who conducted the test.



http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/12/16/voting_system_said_to_fail/