OC Regiater "buzz" - Poll hacking

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Poll hacking

Orange County can breathe a sigh of relief that it doesn't have Diebold electronic voting machines. In May, Finnish security expert Harri Hursti was invited to Leon County, Fla., and given the same access to the voting machines as elections officials. He quickly hacked the system so that a trial election was thrown way off from how the actual votes had been cast and, "Are we having fun yet?" flashed on the computer screens.

California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is considering inviting Hursti to participate in the state's testing of Diebold systems, for which 14 counties here are seeking certification.

Meanwhile, Cypress' Darlene Little is concerned that Orange County might have similar problems with its Hart InterCivic electronic voting machines. Working as part of studycaliforniaballots.org, Little ran an exit poll during the Dec. 6 election at a Laguna Beach polling place and got responses from 52 percent of those casting ballots there. While Democrat Steve Young officially got 52 percent of the vote, Little's exit poll showed him getting 64 percent. She says something might be written into the software code to limit the percent of votes a Democrat receives at any given polling place.

Both acting Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley and Hart InterCivic Vice President Phillip Braithwaite pooh-poohed the notion, saying that Hart InterCivic had experienced none of the shortcomings of Diebold and had passed numerous tests.

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Just to be sure, a backup system will go into action next year, in which each machine saves a paper ballot that the voter can review.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/columns/article_903198.php (sidebar)