New HBO Movie: Hacking Democracy

HBO Films ^ | 10/23/06 | HBO Documentary

[cwb]

"Electronic voting machines count 80% of the votes cast in America today. But are they reliable? Are they safe from tampering? From a current congressional hearing to persistent media reports that suggest misuse of data and even outright fraud, concerns over the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the day. And if the voting process is not secure, neither is America's democracy....

In 2002, Seattle grandmother and writer Bev Harris asked officials in her county why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their elections. Unsatisfied with their explanation, she set out to learn about electronic voting machines on her own. In the course of her research, which unearthed hundreds of reported incidents of mishandled voting information, Harris stumbled across an "online library" of the Diebold Corporation - which counted more than 40 percent of the presidential votes nationwide in 2000 - discovering a treasure trove of information about the inner-workings of the company's voting system...

[cwb]

This movie doesn't premier on HBO until November 2nd (what a coincidence), but with Bev Harris playing a starring role, I can only imagine the objectivity that will be on display. The preview ended with a clip of Bush smiling saying everythings great, portraying the same confidence that the MSM now finds peculiar in light of recent polls (possibly suggesting he knows the fix is in). Below are a list of the contributors to the movie if anyone has any insight into their political affiliations.

HACKING DEMOCRACY was directed by Simon Ardizzone and Russell Michaels; produced by Simon Ardizzone, Robert Carrillo Cohen and Russell Michaels; executive producers, Earl Katz, Sarah Teale and Sian Edwards; edited by Sasha Zik. For HBO: supervising producer, John Hoffman; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

[Petronski]

Bev Harris plays a starring role?

[JRios1968]

In 2002, Seattle grandmother and writer Bev Harris asked officials in her county why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their elections...

And now, you're only $10 away from knowing the truth?

[ghost of nixon]

Further evidence the liberals/Dems will grasp at almost anything before engaging in any healthy re-consideration of their own faults. That said - I think I would feel better with hard-copy ballots, but wasn't it the Dem's whining over the 2000 Florida melee that has driven us to the electronic systems?

[TankerKC]

Geez, everyone KNOWS that manual ballots and hand counting are completely safe, fool proof, and error free. Why change?

[1066AD]

Yes it was, but I believe these machines should have a paper trail or other audit system.
Of course, if the Dems win then the machines are just fine.

[ElkGroveDan]

The Organized left trashed our tried and true voting system to advance their own purposes in Florida in 2000. Now THEY are the ones complaining about the results.

It's time to go back to reliable and verifiable punch cards. Yes, They were reliable. It's only when the ballots are picked, poked, and abused that problems arise.

[steve8714]

Remember that we only have these machines because the "Florida election was stolen". Remember the hanging chad? Remember Holocaust victims voting for Buchanan, which we were told is impossible? The only acceptable voting system to Dems is one with only their candidates listed, and a ballot given to everyone who shows up, however many times they do.

[Killborn]

Compared to the very real REJECTION OF MILITARY BALLOTS, MULTIPLE PUNCHING OF VOTING CARDS (ever wonder what causes all these damn chads? Punch reams of paper to find out), REGISTRATION OF PETS, THE DECEASED, AND FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, DISTRIBUTING NARCOTICS FOR VOTES, INTENTIONAL ACTS OF VIOLENCE TO SUPPRESS VOTER TURNOUT, AND THE EARLY DECLARATION OF A WINNER WHEN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IS STILL IN PROGRESS, this crockumentary amounts to nothing more than a hill of bull turds.

Hey HBO, I got an idea for a movie, we could have all of the above and simply title it "Dems: The Political Fraud Enterprise".

Any takers?

[TexasCajun]

I'm sure I'll get a lot sicker of all this ballot B.S. as election time nears.

But you will never hear that it was Democrats who are too stupid to operate a punch-ballot that brought us electronic voting!

[ballplayer]

Right and there will be absolutely NO Mention Of any voting
machines .There is only Black disenfranchisement when the Democrats lose ,no lawsuits either the lawyers will slither back to their holes

[RasterMaster]

Nothing but a DNC campaign ad aired less than a week before the election.

[longtermmemmory]

I think we need to adopt "A" system which can not be hacked by one person.

The problem with the current e voting is that ONE person can do this.

It ads new meaning to the term "hold back precinct."

[cwb]

I don't know exactly how much of a starring role she plays, but it appears they rely on a lot of her so-called investigation for much of their conclusions throughout the film. We'll see on Nov. 2nd

[taxcontrol]

http://evm2003.sourceforge.net/

Open Vote Consortium has already created the "standard" for how electronic voting should be conducted.

It is a rather simple process:
Voter checks in and is verified
Voter proceeds to a ballot generation station where they:
- select their language / impairment support if needed
- select their candidates
- receive a print out of their choices that includes a security hash of their choices and the machine that generated the choice and their sequence number on the machine. This security code can not be reversed to extract the above in formation. The other included item is a bar code that indicates their choices.

Voter then moves to the ballot confirmation and counting machine. This machine reads the bar code and displays the choices as how the vote will be recorded if approved by the voter. If the voter approves, the ballot is recorded and the PAPER AUDIT TRAIL is then put into the ballot box.

When voting is done, the PRELIMINARY vote is dialed in to the central computer via data line over an encrypted tunnel. That night, election judges will then open each paper ballot audit box and using a different scanning machine, scan each vote into a second counting machine. if the totals match, then the PRELIMINARY vote is altered to CONFIRMED. If the vote count does not match, then the vote count is REJECTED and a manual count is required.

Other security means are used to prevent tampering electronically with the ballot generation or counting. Use of keyed hyper visor program control, runtime CPU hash calculations, source code published for all to review and a hash generated of the executable, dual key hard drive encryption (one key generated by one party and the second key generated by the other party) would make the task of hacking a single voting machine VERY complex and VERY difficult. L

[Petronski]

...but it appears they rely on a lot of her so-called investigation for much of their conclusions throughout the film.

Yeah, that's how I understood your words. Has she not yet been discredited with sufficient thoroughness?

Maybe HBO bought themselves a pig in a poke, or maybe they don't care about her meager veracity because she makes the point they want to make.

[longtermmemmory]

How about the NY pull lever machines.

They have a tendency to have a mechanical failure in punching a hold for the Republican candidate.

[cwb]

Ironic, isn't it? The Dems whined and complained about the disenfranchisement of minorities because of antiquated equipment. Now that everybody's adopting the computer systems, they're crying foul over this. There was nothing wrong with the old system other than the Dems lost and needed an excuse to blame someone/thing.

[popdonnelly]

It's only cheating if the Republicans do it, right HBO? I'm glad I don't get HBO.

[BadAndy]

"Nothing but a DNC campaign ad aired less than a week before the election."

This could actually work in our favor. If liberals think that their votes won't be counted and that the system is rigged, they will be more likely to stay home.