Bump
The site merely displaying results is many levels away from the machine registers that actually tabulate votes in FL. Those machines are not connected to network of any type. They are standalone machines which merely tabulate the paper ballots run through them during the day on election day. The paper ballots are accumulated beneath the machine each day in boxes which are secured and stored in case a recount or audit is necessary.
Does that mean it is impossible to hack the registers? No, but nothing in the article suggests that what the child did was manipulation of the vote tabulation part of the process. Most journalist are pathetically ignorant of technology. They will report on a conference of hackers who are given access to a machine running some version of vote tabulation software and will produce some sort of story that says “See, it only too X [units of time] to hack the [insert name of state] voting system!” Except that, in FL the tabulating machine[s] in each precinct are connected by a power cord to an outlet and are in no way connected to anything else during the election. So, the simulated hack bears no resemblance to a real-world situation.
I have monitored 7 elections in Florida in 4 different counties since 2008 and have served as a GOP election lawyer in the 2008 and 2012 elections.
I am by no means suggesting that the elections process is secured because of world class security measures. It is secure because of the decentralized nature of it – and in many ways due to the primitive information technology (scanned paper) employed.
Any journalist who wants to write such stories should sign up to be an election day monitor at a polling place in FL and watch the process. It’s very tedious, but it will show them that the process has some significant safeguards in it. And none of these periodic “Aha! Voting systems hacked!” stories reflects that they know any of this before they write.