Counting on Diebold

[kster]

The provider of Utah’s new voting machines faces allegations of bad security.
by Ted McDonough

December was a tough month for Diebold Election Systems, the company chosen as the exclusive vendor of voting machines for next year’s Utah elections.

Diebold CEO Walden W. O’Dell resigned without explanation two weeks ago. Days later, three law firms filed class-action lawsuits on behalf of company shareholders, alleging, in part, that Diebold knew its electronic voting machines weren’t up to snuff but lied about problems to boost the stock price. Diebold has denied the claims.

Then, the day O’Dell resigned, Diebold was hammered in Florida where two counties voted to drop Diebold after testing allegedly showed its voting machines could be hacked to change votes without leaving a trace. The allegedly hacked machines were optical scan devices, a different technology than the touch-screen voting machines Gary Herbert, Utah’s lieutenant governor, chose for the state. Diebold said the circumstances of the hacking tests were not realistic.

Also this month, California’s elections chief refused to certify Diebold’s machines for that state’s 2006 elections, citing “significant unresolved security concerns” with the machine’s vote-counting memory cards.

http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2005/politics_2005-12-29.cfm

[Amaryllis]

1. Very interesting statement by the county commissioner here:

“It scares me to death,” said Summit County Commissioner Sally Elliott. “The recount machines aren’t even invented yet and an election is coming upon us. … The state is buying those machines, but they’re not finished yet, not tested.”

[Kurovski]

2. K&R (nt)

[Kelvin Mace]

3. I like this part

None of the foregoing bothers Utah election officials. Polling-place security will keep hackers at bay, they say, and if Diebold machines turn out to be duds, the state has a 10-year guarantee for replacement.

These people should be allowed out in public without a keeper. The danger from hackers is not from the general public, but from crooked election officials. The term "hacker" is a misnomer for a number of reasons (properly , they mean "cracker"), but mostly because it implies possession of sophisticated computer skills. In reality I probably could teach your average eight year-old how to "hack" these systems.

[kster]

4. Well that sounds

pretty scary, if an eight year old can hack in, what can the owner of the counting machines and those in possession of the machines prior to an election do with them?