Since we’re discussing the political process and political issues more than usual today, it seems like a good time to raise the issue of electronic voting. And it turns out there’s a recent post at Freedom to Tinker that may be even more scary than the NSA snooping stories. Here are some excerpts (the whole post is worth a read, including the comments):
A report by Harri Hursti, released today at BlackBoxVoting, describes some very serious security flaws in Diebold voting machines. These are easily the most serious voting machine flaws we have seen to date…
The attacks described in Hursti’s report would allow anyone who had physical access to a voting machine for a few minutes to install malicious software code on that machine, using simple, widely available tools. The malicious code, once installed, would control all of the functions of the voting machine, including the counting of votes…
In addition, compromised machines would be very difficult to detect or to repair. The normal procedure for installing software updates on the machines could not be trusted, because malicious code could cause that procedure to report success, without actually installing any updates. A technician who tried to update the machine’s software would be misled into thinking the update had been installed, when it actually had not. On election day, malicious software could refuse to function, or it could silently miscount votes.
The post and the comments that follow it discuss and debate particular issues but, regardless of the specifics, the clear message is that: there are big problems with the Diebold voting machines; for the sake of our democracy, something should be done to address them; and that not much is being done by the powers that be to make that happen.
Like Internet-delivered video, this is a key arena where the electronic underpinnings of 21st century democracy are evolving (or devolving) and need the attention of political leaders (and also plenty of “sunshine”), but where trust is not being earned and is therefore eroding.
Mitch Shapiro at 2:39 PM|Comments(0)
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