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Filed at 9:54 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company developing security technology for electronic voting suffered an embarrassing hacker break-in that executives think was tied to the rancorous debate over the safety of casting ballots online. VoteHere Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., confirmed Monday that U.S. authorities are investigating a break-in of its computers months ago, when someone roamed its internal computer network. The intruder accessed internal documents and may have copied sensitive software blueprints that the company planned eventually to disclose publicly. Advertisement Chief executive Jim Adler said VoteHere was confident it knew the identity of its hacker and...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company developing security technology for electronic voting suffered an embarrassing hacker break-in that executives think was tied to the rancorous debate over the safety of casting ballots online. VoteHere Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., confirmed Monday that U.S. authorities are investigating a break-in of its computers months ago, when someone roamed its internal computer network. The intruder accessed internal documents and may have copied sensitive software blueprints that the company planned eventually to disclose publicly. Chief executive Jim Adler said VoteHere was confident it knew the identity of its hacker and had already turned over "megabytes of...

At least five convicted felons secured management positions at a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, according to critics demanding more stringent background checks for people responsible for voting machine software. Voter advocate Bev Harris alleged Tuesday that managers of a subsidiary of Diebold, one of the country's largest voting equipment vendors, included a cocaine trafficker, a man who conducted fraudulent stock transactions and a programmer jailed for falsifying computer records.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. (Dec. 12) -- Major changes are on the way for how people will vote in Nevada in the upcoming elections. Nevada is the first state that will require voters to see a paper printout of their selection before they cast their ballot. Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller says he's trying to avoid the political disaster of the Florida recount in the 2000 Presidential Election. "I feel very important the public confidence has to be high in order to entice them to go to the polls," said Secretary of State Dean...

Some three years after the Supreme Court ruled on the presidential election controversy in Florida, division remains on the issue of accurate vote counting. Now we are seeing an early indication of what may well be the focus of election result complaints in 2004.Some states -- including Florida early on -- reacted to the 2000 complaints about hanging chads and spoiled paper ballots by moving to some form or fashion of electronic voting. In 2002, some expressed concerns about security and voter confusion in the use of these new systems. But states using electronic voting experienced few if any problems...

When someone says "this isn't about money," you can be sure it's all about money. And when Paul Krugman says "there's nothing paranoid about suggesting" something, you can be sure that what he's suggesting is a crackpot conspiracy theory — built on lies and innuendo — that only a true paranoid could believe. In his New York Times column Tuesday, Krugman says "there's nothing paranoid about suggesting" that touch-screen voting machines are part of a Republican plot to hijack elections. He sanctimoniously warns, "let's be clear: the credibility of U.S. democracy may be at stake." The proof? Krugman assembles a...

DIEBOLD-FACED LIES    When someone says "this isn't about money," you can be sure it's all about money. And when Paul Krugman says " there's nothing paranoid about suggesting" something, you can be sure that what he's suggesting is a crackpot conspiracy theory, built on lies and innuendo, that only a true paranoid could believe. What "there's nothing paranoid about suggesting" in Krugman's New York Times column yesterday is that touch-screen voting machines are part of a Republican plot to hijack elections. He sanctimoniously warns, "let's be clear: the credibility of U.S. democracy may be at stake." The proof? Krugman...

Inviting Bush supporters to a fund-raiser, the host wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." No surprise there. But Walden O'Dell — who says that he wasn't talking about his business operations — happens to be the chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose touch-screen voting machines are in increasingly widespread use across the United States. For example, Georgia — where Republicans scored spectacular upset victories in the 2002 midterm elections — relies exclusively on Diebold machines. To be clear, though there were many anomalies in that 2002 vote, there is no...

Dust-Up Over E-Vote Paper Trail SAN FRANCISCO -- California election officials who oppose a paper trail for electronic voting machines appear to be gearing up for a fight with the state. Angered by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's announcement Friday that all e-voting machines in the state must produce a voter-verifiable paper audit trail, the election officials released their own statement on the same day saying Shelley had "overstepped his bounds" and acted unilaterally by not consulting with county election officials. The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, or CACEO, led by Shasta County Clerk Ann Reed,...

Online voting offers alternativeby Staff Sgt. Jeff SchoenAir Force Reserve Command Public Affairs 11/25/2003 - ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) -- Potentially hundreds of airmen serving worldwide may be eligible to vote online in 2004 based on a major government initiative to simplify the absentee-ballot process. The secure electronic registration and voting experiment program is part of the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Program organizers hope the experiment will encourage as many as 100,000 absentee voters, including reservists stationed worldwide, to register and vote in state primaries and the general election in 2004. The initiative is designed to improve access to the polls...

<p>The recall election allowed California voters to express fundamental dissatisfaction with the status quo. That's democracy in action. But we should not take it for granted.</p> <p>Coming to light now are serious concerns about the rush to adopt electronic voting systems, and why this may threaten the way our democracy works in the future. The reliability of California's voting systems was seriously questioned during the recall campaign. Some counties were caught in a transition between discredited punch-card ballot systems and new-wave systems that supposedly would put worries about how ballots are counted -- and which ballots are counted -- to rest for good.</p>

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - California's decision to require all electronic voting machines to provide paper receipts by 2006 promises to set the standard for such balloting nationwide. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, who announced the new rule Friday, also introduced stricter requirements for testing and auditing software used to record and tabulate votes in the nation's most populous state. Because California commands a sizable share of the market for voting machines, the move may prompt changes in equipment being adopted nationwide as local governments rush to modernize voting systems. Shelley wrote in the announcement that he is requiring receipts...

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley is expected to announce today that as of 2006, all electronic voting machines in California must be able to produce a paper printout that voters can check to make sure their votes are properly recorded. Late Thursday evening, Shelley placed calls to county elections officials around the state to tell them that any voting system that is currently in use or that is purchased before Jan. 1, 2006, must be modified or replaced to produce a paper trail. After that date, no county will be allowed to buy machines that can't make printouts. Click here...

NORMAN, Okla. -- Remember the hanging chad problem? Well, we don't have to worry about it any more. The solution? Electronic voting machines. There are, however, a couple new problems. One, the programming code used to count the votes is a secret from everyone outside the company making the machines. Two, these companies aren't exactly impartial. Diebold Inc. is the second-largest maker of touch-screen voting machines in the country. Diebold's CEO is Walley O'Dell, who recently stated that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." He recently held a $10,000-a-plate Bush fund-raiser...

The Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who identified security lapses in the voting system Maryland is adopting took his warnings to Annapolis Thursday, telling legislators he has no confidence the flaws are being fixed. Dr. Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of Hopkins' Information Security Institute, criticized the Ehrlich administration's decision to withhold two-thirds of a consultant's report on problems with the Diebold voting system from public view. Rubin said that if the flaws have been fixed there's no justification for secrecy.... Linda Lamone, director of the state elections board, largely dismissed Rubin's concerns and insisted Diebold had completed all the...

Reason Magazine November 11, 2003 Diebold with a Vengance Secrets, lies, and electronic voting Julian Sanchez As the autumn of 2000 drew to a close, citizens of the wealthiest nation on the planet suddenly began to feel a bit... backwards. A country still reeling from the unwelcome realization that the magical Bill Gates and his crack squad of Internet pixies had not forever vanquished the business cycle abruptly discovered that a close contest for leadership of the economic and military juggernaut that is the United States would turn on hanging chads. For week after tedious week, we tuned in to...

Student Publishers and ISP Aim to Stop Diebold's Abusive Copyright Claims Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release San Francisco - A nonprofit Internet Service Provider (ISP) and two Swarthmore College students are seeking a court order on Election Day tomorrow to stop electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Systems, Inc., from issuing specious legal threats. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford Law School are providing legal representation in this important case to prevent abusive copyright claims from silencing public debate about voting, the very foundation of our democratic process. Diebold has delivered...

Information about the PARC Forum and directions to PARC are available at: http://www.parc.xerox.com/events/forum/ The Battle for Accountability in Election Systems David L. Dill Stanford University Computer Science Department Touch-screen voting machines store records of cast votes in internal memory, where the voter cannot check them. Because of our system of secret ballots, once the voter leaves the polls there is no way anyone can determine whether the vote captured was what the voter intended. Why should voters trust these machines? Last December, I drafted a "Resolution on Electronic Voting" stating that every voting system should have a "voter verifiable audit...

<p>Michigan Democrats will be allowed to choose their presidential favorite over the Internet on Feb. 7 despite a challenge arguing Internet voting would deny equal access to minority and low-income voters in the state.</p> <p>The Democratic National Committee on Friday released the report of hearing officer Helen McFadden, who recommended that the challenge to Internet voting be granted in part and denied in part but agreed to keep Internet voting available.</p>

It took more than 21 hours from the time polls closed Tuesday night for Fairfax County, the putative high-tech capital of the region, to get final election results from its new, computerized vote machines. Widespread problems in the system, which the county paid $3.5 million to install, also opened the door to possible election challenges by party leaders and candidates. School Board member Rita S. Thompson (R), who lost a close race to retain her at-large seat, said yesterday that the new computers might have taken votes from her. Voters in three precincts reported that when they attempted to vote...