Worst Ever Security Flaw in Diebold Voting Machine

WhiteDragon writes "The folks at Open Voting Foundation got their hands on a Diebold AccuVote TS touchscreen voting machine. They took it apart (pictures here), and found the most serious security flaw ever discovered in this machine. A single switch is all that is required to cause the machine to boot an unverified external flash instead of the built-in, verified EEPROM."

Re:wrong question

[955301]

you suspected correctly. The current rep, Tom Feeney, representing South Florida rigged the US 2004 election election for his post.

http://www.youtube.com/v/7WmC4grXdIk [youtube.com]

http://www.house.gov/feeney/ [house.gov]

very interesting video. The computer programmer explains what he was asked to do. He gets stupid at the end though and starts rambling off topic, but I blame that on too much time on Slashdot.

Re:When Will Politicians Wake Up?

[SpryGuy]

You might want to read this: Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them) [amazon.com]

Re:Diebold makes ATMs also

[meringuoid]

I wonder if their ATMs have similar "features"?

Of course not. Banks are very insistent that their ATMs report withdrawals accurately. Money is important. Votes, though... I mean, what's the worst that can happen if you miscount votes slightly? You'd only end up with Kodos instead.

Voting in the USA

[slashflood]

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA [nightweed.com]

Everyone who says that Diebold is too incompetent to create a secure voting maschine is following the wrong trail.

Re:When Will Politicians Wake Up?

[MoneyT]

Actualy, there's a very good reason why it could be that way. Wether it's true or not I don't know, but the reason is simple. The voting machines are bought and under the control and regulation of the government. ATMs are under private contract.

For an example of what I mean, go look at the construction and design of a public school building, and then go find a private building. You'll notice the private building is a far better building.

Re:Partisanship?

[not already in use]

In 2003 Walden O'Dell CEO of Diebold said in a letter to Ohio Republican officials that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._presidentia l_election_controversy,_voting_machines [wikipedia.org] Of course, no matter what line of work you're in you have a right to support whoever you wish, but as the head of a company in charge of making voting machines, it may be in your best interest to appear bipartisan. Stupid stupid stupid...

Re:When Will Politicians Wake Up?

[Serveert]

If he wants to sell an honest analysis he should give the book an honest title.

You can't judge a book by its cover, but I can't waste my time reading every single book out there just to find out whether or not it's been mistitled either.

What about studies from social scientists from UC Berkeley [evoting-experts.com]?

The study found counties with e-voting tended to tilt toward Bush, even after controlling for differences between counties including past voting history, income, percentage of Hispanic voters, voter turnout, and county size.

Then there are peer-reviewed studies [uscountvotes.org] from statisticians and mathematicians which show "Irrefutable Evidence of Vote Miscount" in Ohio's 2004 elections.

Here's an exerpt:


Ohios exit poll discrepancy pattern includes three precincts with virtually impossible outcomes and an
unusually high number of precincts with significant discrepancy.1

Diebold petition

[mikeh9741]

I wondered if there was a petition related to this online and found it at http://www.petitiononline.com/boycottd/petition.ht ml [petitiononline.com]. I don't know when it was created but so far only about 230 people have "signed" it.

Re:wrong question

[Reverend528]

http://www.house.gov/feeney/ [house.gov]

That may be the ugliest website i've seen all day. His voters should be ashamed.

Nonsense by Democrats who can't win elections

[Anonymous Coward]

"All you need is a screwdriver ..." Right, and a sophisticated alternative flash bios.

There is not a single documented case of the corruption of the vote with a Diebold machine. It is all theoretical balderdash. Courtesy of the same folks that saw no problem whatever with tens of thousands of paper punch fragments on the floor of the "recount rooms" (even in the fourth or fifth recount) of 2000 -- where the strategy was to "recount" until obtaining the desired result of overturning the legitimate election of George W. Bush.

oops, got the wires crossed

[BitterAndDrunk]

1960 was the suspect year for the Dems - Wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org]

1968 was the Democratic Convention riots, IIRC. (which, quite obviously, maybe I don't)

Re:Diebold lobbied slashdot...

[paiute]

Your number is a bit low. It's more likely Democracy ended when the people running the country stopped being called "Statesmen" and became "Politicians".

Actually, the history of American electoral politics is pretty interesting. After Washington's second term, the process rapidly went downhill. No "Statesman" appears in a true reading of the times. The slander, libel, ballot box stuffing, vote stealing, etc. were common and expected. We are probably in the most inclusive, cleanest period in American history, which should tell you how bad things were.

Re: the other party

[DjMd]

Oh it is worse than that...
In August 2003, Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold, announced that he had been a top fund-raiser for President George W. Bush and had sent a get-out-the-funds letter to Ohio Republicans. In the letters he says he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
Ken Blackwell (Ohio's Secretary of State (Repub)) and current canidate for Ohio Gov is the one who certifies Ohio's elections, and is the one who approved the use of Diebold's machines.
Ohio State Senator Jeff Jacobson, Republican, asked Blackwell in July, 2003 to disqualify Diebold Election Systems' bid to supply voting machines for the state, after security problems were discovered in its software, but was refused.
When Cuyahoga county's primary was held on May 2, 2006, officials ordered the hand-counting of more than 18,000 paper ballots after Diebold's new optical scan machines produced inconsistent tabulations, leaving several local races in limbo for days and eventually resulting in a reversal of the outcome of one race for state representative. Blackwell ordered an investigation by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections; Ohio Democrats demanded that Blackwell, who is also the Republican gubernatorial candidate in this election, recuse himself from the investigation due to conflicts of interest, but Blackwell has not done so.

Re:Diebold lobbied slashdot...

[schtum]

There have been reports [internetnews.com] of poll workers being allowed to take electronic voting machines home with them the night before the election. Even if that weren't the case, lots of people have access to these machines in the days/weeks/months leading up to the election. There's nothing about this hack that requires it to be performed the same day.

Diebold ATMs = sad face

[JesusPancakes]

Actually, Diebold's ATMs aren't nearly as reliable as people think. I actually saw and played with an ATM at Carnegie Mellon University which crashed and rebooted into XP... people had it running Media Player until some sleep-deprived kids taking OS couldn't take it any more. Some pictures here [coed.org].

Practice Safe Design ... Use a Concept

[not_hylas( )]

More Diebold Voting Machine Fun
YMMV

http://www.votergate.tv/ [votergate.tv]

http://www.equalccw.com/dieboldtestnotes.html [equalccw.com]

http://www.equalccw.com/dieboldtestnotes.html#gems installs [equalccw.com]

http://midnightspaghetti.com/newsDiebold.php [midnightspaghetti.com]

http://www.archive.org/details/TheCageBushKerry [archive.org]

hylas

Re:wrong question

[Brickwall]

Well, up here in the Great White North, we use paper exclusively. Here's how the system works:

When the ballot boxes are opened, the returning officer counts the ballots. However, each party (of which we have four major, and many fringe) can have a 'scrutineer' present. These scrutineers can examine and dispute ballots, but they also watch the validity of the entire process. Stuffing ballots or removing them is pretty difficult.

I haven't always been happy with the outcome of our elections (the last government fell after a huge scandal regarding advertising contracts that got funnelled back into party coffers), but I've always been pretty confident the process is clean.

Re:Diebold lobbied slashdot...

[urbanRealist]

His main point was that there are two effective ways of validating elections conducted using electronic voting machines:

1. Make the source code avaliable.
2. Have a paper trail to allow the counts to be checked.

That's really the main point that people need to understand and you got modded up for detracting from that main point by calling BS and perjury?

Re:Diebold lobbied slashdot...

[urbanRealist]

That's not even true. He said he was contracted to write software that could falsify the vote count. He said he did not know if that software was used, but that if he could write it, then it could be written!