[EAS] Flawed Voting

[Peter J. Kindlmann]

One more from the vigilant Robert L. Park.
<https://listserv.umd.edu/archives/bobparks-whatsnew.html>

PREYING ON THE VOTERS: FLAW FOUND IN TOUCH-SCREEN MACHINES.
The most severe security flaw ever found in a voting system has
been discovered by a Finnish expert working for a non-profit
group.  A professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins told the
NY Times that he, "almost had a heart attack," when he learned of
the problem.  This was not some innocent design error that wasn't
caught.  Diebold, the company that makes the machines, built in a
secret "back door" to "update the software."  It could be opened
in minutes if someone knows the code.  Don't worry, the code is a
proprietary secret of Diebold.  Of course, there was that 2003
fund-raising letter to Ohio Republicans from the Diebold CEO that
said, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its votes to the
President"  http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN03/wn121203.html .


The shift to immature electronic voting technologies deserves an
emergency preparedness program of its own. Or should I call it
"faith-based voting"?
Here are the first few hits from a quick Google search.  --PJK

<http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/electoral-integrity.htm>
<http://www.social-informatics.net/ESF2004.pdf>
and a more classic paper as a point of reference for how little has changed
<http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf>