BREAKING: Discover How A Slacker Makes $100,000 A Year!

WEBMASTERS! Get Your Website To The Top Of Google

Ohio voting machines have critical flaws

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Report: Ohio voting machines have critical flaws, could undermine ‘08 election

CINCINNATI– All five voting systems used in Ohio, a state whose electoral votes narrowly swung two elections toward President Bush, have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election, a report commissioned by the state’s top elections official has found.

“It was worse than I anticipated,” the official, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said of the report. “I had hoped that perhaps one system would test superior to the others.”

At polling stations, teams working on the study were able to pick locks to access memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. At boards of election, they were able to introduce malignant software into servers.

Ms. Brunner proposed replacing all of the state’s voting machines, including the touch-screen ones used in more than 50 of Ohio’s 88 counties. She wants all counties to use optical scan machines that read and electronically record paper ballots that are filled in manually by voters.

She called for legislation and financing to be in place by April so the new machines can be used in the presidential election next November. She said she could not estimate the cost of the changes.

Florida, another swing state with a history of voting problems, is also scrapping touch-screen machines and switching to optical scan ones for the election. Such systems have gained favor because experts say they are more reliable than others and, unlike most touch screens, they provide a paper trail for recounts.

Ms. Brunner, a Democrat, succeeded J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who came under fire for simultaneously overseeing the 2004 election and serving as co-chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign in Ohio.

She ordered the study as part of a pledge to overhaul voting after problems made headlines for hours-long lines in the 2000 and 2004 elections and a scandal in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, that led to the convictions of two elections workers on charges of rigging recounts. Ms. Brunner’s office temporarily seized control of that county’s board of elections.

The study released Friday found that voting machines and central servers made by Elections Systems and Software; Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold; and Hart InterCivic; were easily corrupted.

Chris Riggall, a Premier spokesman, said hardware and software problems had been corrected in his company’s new products, which will be available for installation in 2008.

“It is important to note,” he said, “that there has not been a single documented case of a successful attack against an electronic voting system, in Ohio or anywhere in the United States.”

Ken Fields, a spokesman for Election Systems and Software, said his company strongly disagreed with some of the report’s findings. “We can also tell you that our 35 years in the field of elections has demonstrated that Election Systems and Software voting technology is accurate, reliable and secure,” he said.

The $1.9 million federally financed study assembled corporate and academic teams to conduct parallel assessments. A bipartisan group of 12 election board directors and deputy directors acted as advisers.

The academic team, made up of faculty members and students from Cleveland State University, Pennsylvania State, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Pennsylvania, said systemic change was needed. “All of the studied systems possess critical security failures that render their technical controls insufficient to guarantee a trustworthy election,” the team wrote.

In addition to switching machines, Ms. Brunner recommended eliminating polling stations that are used for fewer than five precincts as a cost-cutting measure, and introducing early voting 15 days before Election Day.

NY Times News Article

Have Your Say: Ohio voting machines have critical flaws
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

VIDEO: Faked 9/11 evidence

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: VIDEO: Faked 9/11 evidence
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Brown suffers further poll slump

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Brown suffers further poll slump
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Inside the CIA’s notorious ”black sites”

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Inside the CIA’s notorious ”black sites”
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Prison interrogation techniques in Israel

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Prison interrogation techniques in Israel
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Bush and Cheney: All Dressed up and no Place to Go

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Bush and Cheney: All Dressed up and no Place to Go
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

The Dollar Fallback

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: The Dollar Fallback
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Remains of toxic DU bullets

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Remains of toxic DU bullets
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Hacking the Mind

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Hacking the Mind
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Rules of War as Outlined in Geneva Conventions

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Rules of War as Outlined in Geneva Conventions
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Guantanamo “Living like an animal living in a cage”

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Guantanamo “Living like an animal living in a cage”
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Congressmen urge impeachment

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Congressmen urge impeachment
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Ron Paul: Bush no authority to rule world

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Ron Paul: Bush no authority to rule world
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Troops investigated over smuggling stolen guns

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: Troops investigated over smuggling stolen guns
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

US: Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Have Your Say: US: Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Related News

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Political News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Translate: