Thursday, September 25, 2003
Steal the California Recall Election?
In an article in today's New York Times, entitled "Report Raises Electronic Vote Security Issues," James C. DiPaula, [of Maryland's] Department of Management and Budget, recommended to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. that the state advance a plan [that] he said, "will correct specific risk factors and ensure reliability of the election process."
[Note: no links to NYT articles because the links are temporary -- David I]
The article also quotes whistle-blowing Johns Hopkins computer scientist Aviel Rubin, who first raised concerns with Maryland's Diebold machines: "It almost seems as though the people writing the Maryland action plan either did not read or did not understand the S.A.I.C. report. What they should say is, `We're going to put these systems on hold until they say that these things are safe to use.' "
The website BlackBoxVoting.org says that "encryption and password upgrades will be made only for the machines destined for Maryland and would not be available for the 33,000 touch-screen machines already in use elsewhere," according to Diebold executive Mark Radke.
"Elsewhere" (according to BlackBoxVoting) includes California, where 14 counties will be using Diebold machines in a few days for the recall race.
Recently the ACLU tried to halt the Calif Recall because of problems with paper ballots. This would be MUCH worse, if true.
An article in the Seattle Times on Diebold machines in King County indicates that officials are taking the Diebold situation much more seriously than the Maryland happytalk spinmeisters. It also contains some very interesting detail about alleged Diebold security vulnerabilities -- and an allegation that another whistle blower, Bev Harris, had her site summarily taken off the 'net "after a Diebold attorney said she was violating the company's copyright by posting a link to a New Zealand site that contained 15,000 pieces of Diebold e-mail."
[Note: no links to NYT articles because the links are temporary -- David I]
The article also quotes whistle-blowing Johns Hopkins computer scientist Aviel Rubin, who first raised concerns with Maryland's Diebold machines: "It almost seems as though the people writing the Maryland action plan either did not read or did not understand the S.A.I.C. report. What they should say is, `We're going to put these systems on hold until they say that these things are safe to use.' "
The website BlackBoxVoting.org says that "encryption and password upgrades will be made only for the machines destined for Maryland and would not be available for the 33,000 touch-screen machines already in use elsewhere," according to Diebold executive Mark Radke.
"Elsewhere" (according to BlackBoxVoting) includes California, where 14 counties will be using Diebold machines in a few days for the recall race.
Recently the ACLU tried to halt the Calif Recall because of problems with paper ballots. This would be MUCH worse, if true.
An article in the Seattle Times on Diebold machines in King County indicates that officials are taking the Diebold situation much more seriously than the Maryland happytalk spinmeisters. It also contains some very interesting detail about alleged Diebold security vulnerabilities -- and an allegation that another whistle blower, Bev Harris, had her site summarily taken off the 'net "after a Diebold attorney said she was violating the company's copyright by posting a link to a New Zealand site that contained 15,000 pieces of Diebold e-mail."
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