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voting machine tampering

Posted by Giles Bowkett on Nov 07, 2006; 7:27pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/voting-machine-tampering-tp522939p522958.html

Yeah, this kind of trickery is relatively easy to prove, catch, and
prevent. There are plenty of modern countries conducting elections
without fraud, and I'm sure some of them are using machines. In fact I
think India is. The problem isn't in the machines per se.

On 11/7/06, James Steiner <gregortroll at gmail.com> wrote:

> > So from a computer science or security perspective, how robust do you think
> > this system is?
>
> It's laughably bad. As has been said before: the software that runs
> inside Las Vegas slot machines is better written, better controlled,
> better monitored. Likewise the hardware.
>
> I recall reading that Nevada gambling police arrest insider fraudsters
> on a fairly regular basis--proof that their system works.
>
> The most clever I read about was a fellow who inserted code into the
> programming that watched for a certain sequence of line (coin)
> plays... after the sequence, it jack-potted.
>
> ~~James
> http://www.turtlezero.com
> (JA-86)
>
> On 11/7/06, Robert Holmes <robert at holmesacosta.com> wrote:
> > Not really no. About 30% of the installed machines are the Diebold
> > touch-screen model that does NOT give you a printout. There's no paper trail
> > and absolutely no way to check that what the person voted for is what the
> > machine recorded. In addition, Diebold won't release source code because
> > it's proprietary. And the Independent Testing Authority refuses to release
> > details of its test program. And anyway, in some states ITA testing is
> > voluntary - vendors only need to provide a letter that their machines are
> > capable of passing the tests.
> >
> > So from a computer science or security perspective, how robust do you think
> > this system is?
> >
> > Robert
> >
> > On 11/6/06, Owen Densmore < owen at backspaces.net> wrote:
> > > Won't the electronic voting at least provide a hope for analysis,
> > > especially of "irregularities"?
> > >
> > >      -- Owen
> > >
> > > Owen Densmore   http://backspaces.net
>
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--
Giles Bowkett
http://www.gilesgoatboy.org