Diebold thrown out of Florida by hacker

The Inquirer (A UK Tech Journal) ^ | December 20, 2005 | Nick Farrell

[mitchbert]

What's wrong with optically scanned paper ballots? They are accurate, easy to use and provide an good option for hand recounts.

That's what we do in Toronto (not sure about the rest of Canada) and it works fine. Paper ballots if a recount is needed and results moments after the polls close.

[Seadog Bytes]

Did you see this one...?

...BUMP!

[KC_Conspirator]

I would have to disagree. democrats want to go back to paper ballots and chads because it is easier for them to steal elections.

[vikingd00d]

>>When arriving at the polling station, the individual's name is looked up on a computer printout of all the registered voters for that polling station. The individual signs next to his or her name.

But, is there any verification of identity? Or can someone just walk into a polling place and claim to be someone else? Is absentee voting permitted? G.I.G.O.

>>The ballots are then placed in a special box that tallies the votes electronically when they are inserted.

And how are the boxes controlled? How can you prove that each ballot in the box corresponds one to one with a valid voter? Can you prove chain of ownership?

>>In the 18 years I have lived in Oklahoma I have never heard of any election being contested because of a voting irregularity.

Perhaps there's simply less reason to commit fraud in Oklahoma. In places like California OTOH, I doubt your system would help. No set of rules will assure fairness if people don't follow them; no technology will help if the inputs are corrupted.

[pepperhead]

But, is there any verification of identity? Or can someone just walk into a polling place and claim to be someone else? Is absentee voting permitted? G.I.G.O.

We have to show ID in Kentucky.

[Nathan Zachary]

"That's what we do in Toronto (not sure about the rest of Canada) and it works fine. Paper ballots if a recount is needed and results moments after the polls close."

I don't know about that. The system works fine if you are a Liberal. They always seem to win in Toronto, no matter how corrupt they are. Smells like vote rigging to me, surely people can't be THAT stupid and actually vote for them, could they? /s

[steve86]

Well, then call it a defeatable ROM card.
-----

Memory cards are held in a compartment protected by a small plastic seal. However, these simple seals can be defeated, and Hursti has found evidence that the memory card can be reprogrammed without disturbing the seal by using a telephone modem port on the back of the machine.

The Hursti Hack, referred to as “the mother of all security holes” was first exposed in a formal report on July 4.
(http://www.blackboxvoting.org/BBVreport.pdf).

[pointsal]

Is Diebold headquartered in southern Florida.....

This is bad stuff.

[wildbill]

I doubt there is any technology that can't be hacked, and no 'inside' ballot stuffing that can be stopped.

[Beckwith]

> Well, then call it a defeatable ROM card.

No, I will not. Neither will I call a cow a reindeer.

By definition a read-only-memory (ROM) card is just that, "read only." Comprende? It can't be changed. It's what it is. The Diebold machines come with these cards installed

The Swede, by the description provided, used a PROGRAMMABLE-read-only-memory (PROM). Any hardware programmer can change these cards at will.

Get with the program.

[AzaleaCity5691]

The old Mobile Couty voting machines (which Alabama is making us throw out in the name of uniformity) basically had a set of buttons, you pressed your selections, and then it recorded the vote to a cartridge. When the election ended, you just plugged cartridges into a machine and it counted it up almost immediately.

However, Alabama has now signed a contract with Diebold, and they are going to require us to have optical scan ballots, which I think is a mistake, I don't see why were being made to fix what is broken when we have a system that actually, is better than optical scan ballots period.

[itsahoot]

What system is there that would NOT be compromised by allowing somebody access to the inside of the box?

They are called election boards, usually Democrats.

[steve86]

I've been working with programmable and non-programmable cards on and off for 25 years.

Manufacturers and customers use the terms different ways at different times.

Give up, the world doesn't care and is never going to conform to your rigid and useless ways of thinking.

[wildbill]

I think most election scams, double voting, dead voting, etc, come BEFORE anyone enters the polling booth.

[Cboldt]

I think we need to start dipping our fingers in ink here.

Noses. Make the ink brown in color.
That way, the hacking decribed here couldn't happen. ;-)

[mitchbert]

Toronto is a city where nearly half the population was born outside Canada and the immigrant communities generally credit Liberal immigration policies with their ability to settle here. Like any big city in North America (and we're 4th largest BTW) it is the seat of the media and elitists. This translates into a liberal mindset, but far from exclusively. None of this has anything to do with how votes are counted. Our elections commissions are run by electoral bodies with representation from all parties and takes great pains to avoid any leanings one way or another. As a poll worker (and I've been one) I have absolute authority to eject any party observer from a polling place if they say much more than "Hello" to a prospective voter, and the cops on duty are more than happy to oblige. Please don't take this personally, but the shenanigans I see regularly in US elections, not to mention the idiocy of having one party control a state's election commission utterly astounds me. Our national liberal mental illness aside, we take the integrity of our electoral process very seriously.

[Fierce Allegiance]

everyone appears before the election board, and VERBALLY says who they vote for, in the presence of representatives of both parties,

No thanks, I don't want some government schlock to know who I vted for. Private paper ballot, just like on survivor, but without the damn camera.

[AzaleaCity5691]

I don't think there are any election scams here though, because there is a very specific process of how the machines operate, basically, while it is theoretically possible to put a rigged cartridge into a machine, people in line would know that you're doing it

The whole optical scan thing means that we'd be bringing paper ballots back into Mobile County, and when paper ballots are involved, it is much easier to cheat, particularly the optical scan concept which is, fill out a mark with a pencil on a ballot and run it through a machine. Just like punchcard it could easily be manipulated, as some cards could be run through, some not, extra cards could be on hand, etc. Personally, I think our current system is safer, even with the lack of a paper trail.

[Beckwith]

Products manufactured by the high technology industry communicate to its customers via their marketing departments. Marketing departments routinely change correct language because they sell the sizzle not the steak. So you are correct, terms are used in different ways at different times. Hell, some of the terms are used so incorrectly, they don't mean anything anymore. "Enterprise" comes to mind.

But in the interest of precision, a read-only-memory (ROM) card is only that. It can't be reprogrammed. A programmable-read-only-memory (PROM) card, on the other hand, can be changed or reprogrammed (just like it says).

Regarding your unnecessary personal attack ~

Give up, the world doesn't care and is never going to conform to your rigid and useless ways of thinking.

This absurd statement is more of a reflection of who and what you are, not me. I grew up when sticks and stones didn't break any bones. Besides, projection is generally limited to flaming liberals.

And as far as your 25 years of experience ~ if you want to compare resumes, I have a hundred dollar bill that mine will blow yours right out of the water.

Care to put a hundred up on PayPal, right now? Best resume wins and we can let our peers in the Forum decide the winner.