Brad: Hursti looks inside Diebold machine -a first ! Photo essay!

[Amaryllis]

EXCLUSIVE: Through the (Plastic) Looking Glass & Behind the Brown Door...
Diebold's Toilet Paper Democracy -- a Photographic Essay
How America's Votes Will be Counted (or not) in 2006 and Beyond...Unless Something is Done About it.

You've heard the reports of the new Diebold touch-screen voting machines which have recently been updated to include a so-called "voter-verified paper trail." You may also have heard how the...

You've heard the reports of the new Diebold touch-screen voting machines which have recently been updated to include a so-called "voter-verified paper trail."

You may also have heard how the printers they've added to produce these "paper trails" on their previously-paperless touch-screen voting machines are reported to jam up in test after test -- like the one last summer in California where some 33% of such machines failed due to screen freezes, software failures and paper jams.

You may have heard that Diebold actually includes a magnifying glass with each machine to help voters see these tiny, virtually unreadable "paper trails."

You may even have heard how the virtually uncountable thermal paper rolls, which scroll back into the machine after supposedly being "verified" by the voter, have turned up blank on some of the busiest machines at the end of Election Day -- as occurred in Lucas County, OH during the November 2005 Election in Toledo.

Now, for the first time, a hands-on examination of actual Diebold Accu-Vote TSx "election-ready" machines in Utah -- where the newly state-approved and purchased machines are just now being delivered across the state -- has been conducted by Security Innovations and computer security expert Harri Hursti. The examination was done in Emery County, UT with the approval of the county's elected official in charge of elections, Clerk-Recorder Bruce Funk.

FULL STORY, EXCLUSIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002576.htm

[stellanoir]

1. such bull

these guys just keep in coming with the gross incompitance.

Unbelievable yet true.

[nicknameless]

2. Thank God they're doing this.

Recommended.

[Wilms]

3. Hadn't thought of that.

The government is deploying equipment that doesn't have a UL Label.

That's kind of shocking. As it seems, is the TSx.

[Mnemosyne]

4. Just WOW! n/t

[Canuckistanian]

5. From an engineering standpoint alone

These machines are extremely substandard. Thermal printers have been around since PAC-man and they're usually reliable and durable.

If you have a 33% failure rate during a short testing period it indicates to me that there is NO quality control at the factory or in the engineeering process.

These machines should be banned just for the safety violations involved. You try and market a product that would fail a UL test every time.

All in all, a waste of $2000/unit. I would offer $20 at a garage sale, just for the parts.

[simonm]

6. Touch screen protection flaw not listed

Touch screens are sensitive to sharp objects since there is a thin film over the screen. This film enables the voter to choose options on the screen rather than use a keyboard.

I would hate to see an activist bring a small razor and cut this film thereby making the machine inoperative.

[Wilms]

7. You don't need a razor to take out these machines.

Just turn them on and something will fail soon enough.

But you're right.

Talk about a denial of service attack. :grr: