[DBrow]

neither article is terribly technical- both raise vague unease that they may possibly be insecure, possibly. Neither comes right out and proves that the machines can be hacked, they just say that a small number of professors think that it may be possible. One article says that there are issues with usability.

What is telling is this, though-

“This makes the job of a person who wants to cheat a lot easier,” Rubin said. “If the machines had a paper trail, anyone could inspect the outcome, because the paper would give you the right answer.”

The paper gives an opportunity to throw an election much easier. The person who wishes to cheat merely switches the paper tape for any two machines. Oh oh, now the tape does not match the machine! What do we do? Count the tape, or trust the machine, or call in the media and the lawyers?

From one of the articles,

“Security, while important, happens to be one of those places where voting machines actually have not proven to fail,” Bederson says. “However,”

So the strongest statement about security says that there have been no security issues with electronic voting machines.

[lifelong_republican]

You should read more carefully, especially such things as the GAO report in which the systems were found to be unsuitable for use in elections.

They’re not secure, they’re unreliable, they’re overpriced, and it’s documented that they have lost, switched, and faked votes already.