Md. Voting Machines Said to Have Flaws

[rodbarnett]

By TOM STUCKEY
Associated Press Writer

January 30, 2004, 5:56 AM EST


ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Maryland's new electronic voting system has many potential security flaws that must be corrected but is nevertheless "worthy of voter trust," a technical consultant told legislators.

Michael Wertheimer, who worked on a report presented Thursday to the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, said a team that simulated an election as a test found several ways vote totals could be changed. He said touch-screen machines could be disabled simply by repeatedly jamming a voter card into a terminal or lifting it up and pulling out wires.

But Wertheimer, who works for RABA Technologies, added that "we feel the system will accurately render the election" in March.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-voting-machines,0,30387.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[dusty64]

1. Gee, this has

got to be one of the understatements of the year. I'm thrilled this issue is finally getting some attention (mainly due to the hard work of many people on this forum, thanks!), but it looks like little to nothing is going to be done about this in time to matter. I still can't believe they are getting away with this and the actions and responses of so many "election" officials is beyond belief, they are definitely NOT working for the People anymore.

[0007]

2. It does appear we're under the state of siege!

[onehandle]

3. I was instructed to post this here...

This much more detailed story is now buried behind this lesser mainstream story (no offense to the poster of this thread). It will now be missed by many a reader.
__________________________________________

Md. computer testers cast a vote: Election boxes easy to mess with

In Annapolis, tales of trickery, vote rigging

For a week, the computer whizzes laid abuse - both high- and low-tech - on the six new briefcase-sized electronic voting machines sent over by the state.

One guy picked the locks protecting the internal printers and memory cards. Another figured out how to vote more than once - and get away with it. Still another launched a dial-up attack, using his modem to slither through an electronic hole in the State Board of Elections software. Once inside, he could easily change vote totals that come in on Election Day.

"My guess is we've only scratched the surface," said Michael A. Wertheimer, who spent 21 years as a cryptologic mathematician at the National Security Agency.

snip...

Meanwhile, William A. Arbaugh, an assistant computer science professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and part of the team, easily sneaked his way into the state's computers by way of his modem. Once in, he had access to change votes from actual precincts - because he knew how to exploit holes in the Microsoft software.

Those holes should have been patched through regular updates sent to customers, patches that haven't been installed on the elections equipment since November.

"There's no security that's going to be 100 percent effective. But the level of effort was pretty low," Arbaugh said. "A high school kid could do this. Right now, the bar is maybe 8th grade. You want to raise the bar to a well-funded adversary."

http://www.sunspot.net/news/bal-te.md.machine30jan30,0,6436243.story?c...

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. This is how the repugs plan to keep Congress

In just about every state in the US, they have forced us to install faulty equipment. So far none of these fancy, overpriced, buggy, hackable systems have performed reliably.

In Florida, most counties can no longer comply with state election laws because it is impossible to do an actual recount on paperless touch-screen systems. Remember when the repugs held the dems to the letter of the law in 2000? Remember how important Bu$h's equal protection under the law was? Floridians and a lot of other people in this country no longer have equal protection under the law for a free and fair election. Say goodbye to democracy, say hello to totalitarianism.

[Robb]

10. Kicking this story

...very, very interesting, and I missed it. :)

[cosmicdot]

5. the MD primary is just around the corner

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=337836#337969

contains the schedule/tasks ... the

punchlist for Diebold testing in MD
most all tasks are marked "completed"

[many a good man]

6. Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland

http://www.truevotemd.org/

Stay up to date and take action!

[cedahlia]

9. Thank you for posting that link

As a Marylander--hell, as a VOTER--this issue has me very angry and anxious.

I sent a letter through the web site asking Erlich and other Md. officials if my vote will count on election day, or are they comfortable with being responsible for rendering the entire Democratic process meaningless...don't know how much good it will do, but I am pissed. :mad:

[Woodstock]

7. Tamper tape?

As in anybody possessing a roll of it could just replace it?

What a joke this is going to be.

Did it occur to anyone to do all this BEFORE buying the damned things? No, because that was part of the plan. Ehrlich is in bed with Bush.

On edit, thanks for posting that article from the Sun. The AP article made things seem much less alarming.

That Sun article should be sent to EVERYONE. And safe a copy for fair use because it will drop off in 2 weeks. It's amazing how few people know about this.

[gulfcoastliberal]

8. Absentee Ballots a Short-Term Answer?

I understand absentee ballots leave a papertrail, is voting this way the most prudent thing to do until this issue is properly taken care of? If so, please make sure you vote this way if your county is deploying these deplorable machines. Please advise.

[Gin]

11. BBV is one of the new strategies...the ONLY way they will win.

"GOP strategists believe new technologies have created a new opportunity"

[SaddenedDem]

12. Summary of the things found (from sunspot link above)

• One guy picked the locks protecting the internal printers and memory cards.
  
  
• Another figured out how to vote more than once - and get away with it.
  
  
• Still another launched a dial-up attack, using his modem to slither through an electronic hole in the State Board of Elections software. Once inside, he could easily change vote totals that come in on Election Day.
  
  
• One thing was clear: There are many ways to fool with Diebold's machines, some of which could lead to an Election Day disaster.
  
  
• Wertheimer said it would take nearly a complete rewrite of the computer code to fix the machines' flaws.
  
  
• He had learned that he could quickly pick a lock on the side of the machine, plug in his keyboard and wreak havoc on the results stored inside - all while likely going undetected by poll judges.
  
  
• Diebold "basically had no interest in putting actual security in this system," said Paul Franceus, one of the consultants. "It's not like they did it wrong. It's like they didn't bother."
  
  
• Someone bent on causing trouble could call a polling place and tell workers that the state's modem is down and results should be called in on a new phone number. Then the troublemaker could simply change the results before sending them onto the state.
  
  
• Meanwhile, William A. Arbaugh, an assistant computer science professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and part of the team, easily sneaked his way into the state's computers by way of his modem. Once in, he had access to change votes from actual precincts - because he knew how to exploit holes in the Microsoft software.
  
  
• "A high school kid could do this. Right now, the bar is maybe 8th grade. You want to raise the bar to a well-funded adversary."