Miami Herald 12/15: New tests fuel doubts about vote machines

[kansasblue]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13410061.htm

A top election official and computer experts say computer hackers could easily change election results, after they found numerous flaws with a state-approved voting-machine in Tallahassee.\


Luv this line "It's possibly one person acting in secret changing thousands of votes in a second.''

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Finally, a mainstream media newstory about the subject! n/t

[still_one]

2. yeah, but that is as far as it will go I suspect

[thecrow]

4. Then we should share this story with other news outlets...

Blast the media.
Be the media.

[still_one]

5. at least we have AAR, and some progressive outlets

including the blogs and DU

In my view except for the occasionly story that slips out of the MSM, they have a different agenda

Very little has been said about Fitzgerald, Diebold, Enron, healthcare crisis, economy, bush endorsing delay and rove etc.

but poor Martha Stewart, she made headlines almost everyday

The news outlets know very well what is happening, and they are the conduit

[librechik]

9. check it out; it's the FL State Elections Supervisor dissing Diebold

I think this might be Something!

[still_one]

13. I will, thanks

[KittyWampus]

10. The NYTimes Wrote A SERIES Of Pieces On This Subject

they appeared on the editorial page.

[blm]

19. Another KnightRidder gem.

.

[mod mom]

3. Thanks for posting this! Rec'd

[ovidsen]

6. I'm STUNNED!!

No, I'm not. Reccommended.

[Patsy Stone]

7. ES&S still violates the Florida Election Reform Act of 2001

Which requires the ability to conduct a MANUAL recount.

"Florida Election Reform Act of 2001. According to this law, a manual recount will automatically be conducted in any election when the margin of victory is one-fourth of a percent or less. Without individual paper ballots being verified by each respective voter, a true manual recount is impossible."

Robert Wexler is fighting this fight. He needs our help. Glenda Hood, Florida SoS, resigned in November of this year. Wexler has a pending case against her:

http://www.wexler.house.gov/news.php?ID=146

Wexler: Hood’s Departure an Opportunity for Bush to Tap Election’s Chief Who Supports a Paper Trail
Federal Appeal Against Hood’s Office Will Proceed as Planned on December 7th in Miami

<snip>

In addition, on December 7, the 11th District Court of Appeals in Miami, FL will hear oral arguments in Wexler’s federal paper trail lawsuit appeal, where he will be represented by Jeffrey M. Liggio of Liggio, Benrubi & Williams in West Palm Beach, FL.

<snip>

It's not enough to change from Diebold to ES&S, the fact that the election equipment itself is illegal is the point to drive home.

[oregonindy]

8. Repeat after me the elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004 were stolen

[kansasblue]

16. exit poll data lost in 2002, unusual for presidents part to win seats

in 2002.

See Georgia for the biggest melt down. 2002

2000 exit poll predicted Gore win.

2004 exit poll predicted Kerry win.

[Patsy Stone]

11. My letter to Marc Caputo

Thanks for your article on Leon County’s “experiment” and findings. You left out two important points that would have made this a stronger story.

First, although you mentioned that:

“Sancho said Diebold isn't the only one to blame for hacker-prone equipment. The Florida secretary of state's office should have caught these problems early on, he said, and the Legislature should scrap a law severely restricting recounts on touch-screen machines and equip them with the means of producing a paper trail. Sancho said Diebold isn't the only one to blame for hacker-prone equipment. The Florida secretary of state's office should have caught these problems early on, he said, and the Legislature should scrap a law severely restricting recounts on touch-screen machines and equip them with the means of producing a paper trail.”

What you didn’t mention is that all the systems which do not produce this trail are in direct violation of the Florida Election Reform Act of 2001. Also, that Rep. Robert Wexler had a pending lawsuit against Glenda Hood. This was heard on December 7.

From Rep. Robert Wexler’s site: http://www.wexler.house.gov/issues.php?ID=10

“According to this law, a manual recount will automatically be conducted in any election when the margin of victory is one-fourth of a percent or less. Without individual paper ballots being verified by each respective voter, a true manual recount is impossible."

“In a recount without voter-verified paper ballots, the machines will only reprint the same results they recorded the first time. This simply means there is no way to confirm that the original results are correct, which is the essence of a recount. A reprint is not a recount.”

http://www.wexler.house.gov/news.php?ID=146

The second point you neglected to mention is the GAO report from this past September regarding Election security and reliability.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf

Thanks for putting this out there, but I believe a more complete accounting of the state’s system, how it compares to the laws on the books and what changes must be made to guarantee fair elections and voting rights would better serve the public interest.

[blm]

26. Excellent point.

You should start a separate thread in GD starting with the Herald article and adding your letter afterwards.

Maybe others will be inspired to write of their interest as well.

[Botany]

29. Did I ever tell you that you are my Fav EDV?

drip drip drip ..... I wonder if the mainstream media will ever apologize to us for calling us conspiracy freaks?

[blm]

35. Well, you see how well they treated Gary Webb even after the documents

uncovered at the CIA proved him right?

[Naipes]

12. What, no paper trail?

It boggles my mind that these counties would use machines that did not offer a paper trail. It's so easy to incorporate, I just can't believe it.

[Vidar]

14. Important story. Thanks for posting.

[converted_democrat]

15. Thank you for posting!!! n/t

[blm]

17. DUers - PLEASE SEND THIS ARTICLE TO YOUR LOCAL PAPERS.

.

[blm]

18. And CALL THE NEWSROOMS, TOO. They WILL listen.

.

[JudyM]

32. Just called the Washington Post. Anybody else want to, contact info here:

Main Phone (ask for National desk):
202.334.6000
800.627.1150

Email National desk directly:
[e-mail]

[dweller]

34. i heard the story today several times

on the AAR affiliate here, on the CBS radio news reports.

i'd like to think it will make the CBS evening TV news, but not holding my breath.

dp

[Judi Lynn]

20. I would pray, since the Miami Herald is a Knight-Ridder paper, the article

will be carried in the OTHER Knight-Ridder papers, as well. That would be a very decent amount of publicity. From the article:

Sancho first clashed with Diebold in May, when he teamed up with a nonprofit election-monitoring group called BlackBoxVoting.org, which has made a crusade of showing that electronic voting machines are subject to fraud. BlackBox hired Herbert Thompson, a computer-science professor and strategist at Security Innovation, which tests software for companies such as Google and Microsoft.
Thompson couldn't hack into the system from the outside. So Sancho gave him access to the central machine that tabulates votes and to the last school election at Leon County High.
Thompson told The Herald he was ''shocked'' at how easy it was to get in, make the loser the winner and leave without a trace. The machine asked for a user name and password, but didn't require it, he said. That meant it had not just a ''front door, but a back door as big as a garage,'' Thompson said.
From there, Thompson said, he typed five lines of computer code -- and switched 5,000 votes from one candidate to another.
''I am positive an eighth grader could do this,'' Thompson said.
(snip)

How can ANYONE read this and not feel obligated to try to find out more? There's no excuse for closing their eyes when the message is so clear.

[blm]

23. Contact ALL local papers and ask them to look into this story.

KnightRidder is also a news service, and other papers can pick up their stories.

[DoYouEverWonder]

27. St. Pete Times has the AP version up now.

Dec 15, 3:25 PM EST

Elections supervisor: Some Diebold voting machines can be hacked

By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Tests show some Diebold voting machines used in Florida and elsewhere around the nation can be hacked by election office insiders to change results, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho charged Thursday.

Sancho said the tests on optical machines that scan paper ballots, conducted for his office and a monitoring group, also indicated they can be manipulated without leaving any evidence of tampering.

"This is not supposed to be possible," Sancho said. "We did it."

Diebold spokesman David Bear discounted the tests as unrealistic because they bypassed normal security procedures.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_DIEBOLD_VOTING_MACHINES_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=state.shtml&CTIME=2005-12-15-15-25-42

[blm]

28. Note the "without leaving any evidence of tampering" part.

Therein lies the problem challenging AFTER a vote.

The time to challenge and expose the machines is BEFORE the vote.

[Joe Chi Minh]

56. Any technology that has superseded the use of pen and paper

by the individual voter, is simply incompatible with secure elections. Period.

It's been pointed out by relevant technological experts on a number of occasions. Not that such technology by any means exhausts the possibilities of fraud in other parts of the election process, of course, either before and after.

[fshrink]

21. And Diebold CEO resigned last week, right?

[Mountainman]

22. In order for them to take this seriously, Dems should hack into a machine

and change some election results. As long as Repubs do it, they would change a thing but let a repuke lose an election because a Dem hacked into machines and you will hear them scream from FL to Alaska.

[joeunderdog]

24. can't beat em, join em.

I agree--they'll just claim it's impossible until we un-rig one of their rigged outcomes or until some rebel hacks into an election and completely blows it up in a way that can't be explained away.

[ticapnews]

31. Just have a bunch of write-in candidates win...

If HaxorrrXXXX wins a seat on the City Council, 733T5P3AK is elected as the DA and c0ld 5n3Ak3r turns out to be the mayor, I think it will prove beyond all doubt that hackers can get into the Diebold/ES&S voting machines...

[lovuian]

25. This was proof the election

was stolen!!!

[SoFlaJet]

30. That's MY congressman busting his ass

to get something done Robert Wexler-great democrat

[Orangepeel]

33. Leon county supervisor says Volusia county hacked in 2000

(although the vote totals were fixed in the recount because they used optical scan machines with paper ballots)

The local NBC Orlando news station (which also serves Volusia county) had a nice story tonight interviewing the Leon county supervisor of elections. He said that not only COULD electronic voting machines be hacked, they WERE hacked in Volusia County in 2000 when 16,000 votes mysteriously disappeared from Gore's total.

http://www.wesh.com/news/5542983/detail.html

Elections Official: Some Voting Machines Could Be Hacked

Some voting machines in four Central Florida counties may be in danger of being hacked.

An elections supervisor in Leon County said tests show an insider could secretly change election results on the Diebold optical-scan machines, WESH 2 News reported.

Brevard, Seminole, Volusia and Osceola counties all use that system. Diebold isn't commenting.

[Tiggeroshii]

36. This needs to be sent to lots of people

A lot of people believe that the machines aren't prfect but never believed that it was possible to change an election result significantly.. So many people still just don't know how vulnerable they are.

[Orangepeel]

37. Elections Official: Some Voting Machines Could Be Hacked (re Florida 2000)

A local Central Florida news station is running a story in which the Leon County Supervisor of Elections is claiming that results in Volusia County in 2000 indicate that an insider tried to hack the vote

Link to story and video: http://www.wesh.com/news/5542983/detail.html


Sancho began investigating the problem after watching the votes come in during the infamous 2000 presidential election. In Volusia County precinct 216, a memory card added more than 200 votes to George W. Bush's total and subtracted 16,000 votes from Al Gore. The mistake was later corrected during a hand count.

After watching his computer expert change vote totals this week, Sancho said that he now believes someone on the inside did the same think in Volusia County in 2000.

on edit: this is potentially a dupe of http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1988379, but in that story, the supervisor doesn't say that he thinks that the vote WAS hacked, so I thought it deserved it's own thread. Sorry, mods, if you don't think so.

[sasquatch]

38. Put this on the fron page

[ck4829]

39. I second that.

War on Christmas

War against Christmas

[kansasblue]

40. not a dupe, this is the third major new source carrying the Leon

County info.

Thanks!

[Orangepeel]

41. thanks, kansasblue

it's only a local station, but at least it's getting some play!

[longship]

42. R & K

:kick:ed

Agree. This should be considered for front page.

[KaryninMiami]

43. From Today's Miami Herald FRONT PAGE

Made my day...
I assume this was already posted earlier today but didn't check to make sure. It's an important piece however and it appears that we are finally making progress!

ELECTIONS

New tests fuel doubts about vote machinesA top election official and computer experts say computer hackers could easily change election results, after they found numerous flaws with a state-approved voting-machine in Tallahassee.BY MARC CAPUTO AND GARY FINEOUT

A political operative with hacking skills could alter the results of any election on Diebold-made voting machines -- and possibly other new voting systems in Florida -- according to the state capital's election supervisor, who said Diebold software has failed repeated tests.

Ion Sancho, Leon County's election chief, said tests by two computer experts, completed this week, showed that an insider could surreptitiously change vote results and the number of ballots cast on Diebold's optical-scan machines.

After receiving county commission approval Tuesday, Sancho scrapped Diebold's system for one made by Elections Systems and Software, the same provider used by Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The difference between the systems: Sancho's machines use a fill-in-the-blank paper ballot that allows for after-the-fact manual recounts, while Broward and Miami-Dade use ATM-like touchscreens that leave no paper trail.

Snip

The Leon County test results are likely to further fuel suspicions that the new electronic voting systems in Florida, in place since the 2002 elections, are susceptible to manipulation.


More:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13410061.htm

[Up2Late]

44. I don't get it, nobody cared to listen to us about this 5 years ago...

...why would they care more now?

Plus, the damage has already been done...:shrug:

[Orangepeel]

45. but future damage could be avoided

If the media is finally willing to report and anyone is finally willing to listen, well, it can never be too little or too late.

If one believes that voting machines can be manipulated, there are only two possibilities for the future

1. Enough people become aware of the hacking that safeguards (like paper ballots and random audits of the tabulating machines) are instituted.
2. We are totally fucked

I'm not ready to believe the latter.

[Joe Chi Minh]

57. It's not so difficult to understand.

Your democracy is not yet dead. Checks and balances have come into play, as the power of the Bushco has been incrementally diminished, because of certain major "design faults" in Bushco's "Human Resources" (I'm not blaming their Creator, but their response to him as reflected in their own plans, schemes, designs), leading to an extraordinary over-reaching on a scale verging on the positively phantasmagorical.

As for the damage already having been done, the shrug and the grimace.... if you had your arms caught in lethal industrial machinery and mangled beyond repair, would you not endeavour to prevent the rest of your body from being fed into the mangling mechanisms?

[Up2Late]

58. Sorry, I guess I've just been down this road one too many times...

...to get excited about this again.

My right to have my vote counted ended in 2002 when Georgia sold out to Diebold who took over the vote counting and one by one, stole dozens of elections they shouldn't have won. All of my so-called "elected" representatives now, with the exception of two (2), are now Diebold selected frauds.

The last two will soon be one, and then most likely zero when the next election cycle begins. The last two are Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor (who lost most of his power in 2004 when they stole the Georgia Legislature) and Secretary of State Cathy Cox. In Georgia, the Secretary of State is ultimately in charge of Georgia elections.

In 2006, both of the last Georgia Democrats, Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor and Secretary of State Cathy Cox are planning to run for Governor, so one will be eliminated in the Democratic primary (most likely Mark Taylor) and then we have Diebold shill Cathy Cox running against Diebold selected Governor Sonny Purdue.


You should read this from "Count the Vote. org" written in 2004, it might help to explain some of my frustration:

<http://www.countthevote.org/cathy_diebold.htm>

Sorry, but I already feel like I'm 3/4 of the way into the industrial meat grinder, saving my legs and feet and this point, won't help much. The only thing that would make me happy at this point is seeing all these criminals on public trial and all the Diebold machines thrown into an industrial shredder.

[Up2Late]

46. kick n/t

:kick:

[oregonindy]

Leon County FL Supervisor of Elections, alleges fraud in 2000 elections!

----After watching his computer expert change vote totals this week, Sancho said that he now believes someone on the inside did the same think in Volusia County in 2000.

"Someone with access to the vote center in Volusia County put it on a memory card and uploaded it into the main system," Sancho said-----



http://www.wesh.com/news/5542983/detail.html



Voting machines used in four Central Florida counties might be flawed.

There's new evidence that computer hackers could change election results without anyone knowing about it, WESH 2 News reported.

The supervisor of elections in Tallahassee tested voting machines several times over the last several months, and on Monday, his workers were able to hack into a voting machine and change the outcome. He said that same thing might have happened in Volusia County in 2000.

The big controversy revolves around a little black computer card that is smaller than a floppy disk and bigger than a flash drive. The card is inserted into voting machines that scan paper ballots. The card serves as the machine's electronic brain

[NanceGreggs]

47. And it only took ...

... FIVE F*CKING YEARS to look into this!

[oregonindy]

51. I know...it frickin sucks...is there a statute of limitations on fraud?

[SoFlaJet]

48. Yea

now we need Arthur Anderson PB SoE's to step up and DO what HE was elected to do-hasn't yet-we're watching...and waiting

[Quakerfriend]

49. And, Bush says he's going to look into this.

Pleeeeeeez!

[UpInArms]

50. ummm.... right.... as... soon... as - oh well, never mind

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

52. Would you mind correcting the title?

Elections Official: Some Voting Machines Could Be Hacked

[oregonindy]

53. no because he specifically says this in the article

---After watching his computer expert change vote totals this week, Sancho said that he now believes someone on the inside did the same think in Volusia County in 2000.

"Someone with access to the vote center in Volusia County put it on a memory card and uploaded it into the main system," Sancho said-----


that is a direct allegation from the Leon County election supervisor that some unknown person hacked the system and changed the votes.

[gratuitous]

54. The rules for the LBN forum

Specify that you use the article title for the subject line of your post -- cuts down on duplicate postings of the same story.

The moderators will help you out if you need it.

[texpatriot2004]

55. I agree. The title is fine. n.t