E-voting machines American made are not safe, Americans say

[RaulVB]

Posted 7/12/2004 3:56 AM




Doubts over touchscreen tech choice for Venezuela recall

By Alexandra Olson, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela — Despite an electronic voting fiasco in 2000 and the furor over e-voting in the United States, Venezuela is using untested touchscreen computers for its recall referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency.
Critics fear touchscreen voting machines in the Aug. 15 vote could fail spectacularly, exacerbating a crisis over Chavez's rule that has polarized the world's No. 5 oil exporter and killed dozens in sporadic political violence.
The touchscreen machines on which a third of the U.S. electorate will vote in November are dangerously vulnerable to hackers, rigging and mechanical failure, computer scientists generally agree.

That didn't deter the Chavez-dominated Venezuelan Elections Council from choosing Smartmatic, a little-known Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, to provide similar technology — albeit with a printed record of each vote — for the referendum.
Smartmatic has never tested its machines in an election. And there has been no independent analysis or certification of its touchscreen system, although the council says the system will be audited before the vote.

In the United States, touchscreen computers are partly an attempt to eliminate hanging chads and other problems associated with the disputed U.S. presidential election results in Florida in 2000. Chavez often cites the Florida debacle to question George W. Bush's presidential credentials.
Yet in Venezuela, an electronic voting system produced that very same year what is widely known as the "mega-flop."

The biggest election in Venezuela's history was supposed to take place on May 28, 2000. More than 6,000 public offices were up for grabs, and Chavez, elected in 1998, was seeking re-election.
But two days before the vote, the Supreme Court postponed the election because of problems with computer software needed to tabulate votes and register more than 36,000 candidates. It was humiliating for election officials who had insisted things were going smoothly.

link:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/2004-07-12-venezuela

[alittlelark]

1. OK, cut it down to the meat and give a link

then get informed....the Venezuela press is Right-wing. They forget to mention that Chavez's gov't had each one thoroughly checked and NO MODEMS WERE ALLOWED!

[RaulVB]

2. What???

Read the article. "USA TODAY". Google it.

I guess all the meat (raw) is there.

Relax, I didn't write the piece and I thank you for the "advice", but I know enough about e-voting machines and how easy to "hack" they are.

That is the point behind the narrative here. OK?

[alittlelark]

3. Not OK - the article implies that the machines are PEACHY KEEN

NOT TRUE. NOT ACCURATE. USA Today is almost as Reich-wing as the Washington Times.

[RaulVB]

5. Let's try this for the last time

That is why I posted it!

To show how the right wing media manipulates information and frames the message to, after they are finished, look the other way and suffer from collective amnesia!

Get it?

[alittlelark]

8. WOW!!! could'a fooled me.....

:wow:

[Maddy McCall]

4. Evidently you don't know enough about DU rules to post.

Four paragraphs maximum and provide a link.

[RaulVB]

6. No, I forgot. I will cut it and link it. Thanks

n/t.

[Carolab]

7. This is the ONLY part of it that matters

But U.S. computer experts have found numerous security flaws in touchscreen machines, including incorrect use of cryptography, said Aviel D. Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University.

"Computers can be made to produce any outcome that you want without anybody really knowing that's what was done," Rubin said.

[RaulVB]

9. I just read a text posted from another site longer than 4 paragraphs

Clarify the rule, please.