Federal study says all touch-screen voting machines allow undetectable hacking

[kpete]

Federal study says all touch-screen voting machines allow undetectable hacking
February 18, 1:12 PM
by Michael Richardson, Boston Progressive Examiner

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a nationwide review of electronic voting machines. Buried in the technical jargon of computer programmers are some alarming findings that should trigger a public outcry against touch-screen voting machines.

The NIST Voting Team provided a definition of 'voting system' that highlighted points of attack from hackers. "Equipment (including hardware, firmware, and software), materials, and documentation used to define elections and ballot styles, configure voting equipment, identify and validate voting equipment configurations, perform logic and accuracy tests, activate ballots, capture votes, count votes, reconcile ballots needing special treatment, generate reports, transmit election data, archive election data, and audit elections."

The NIST experts recommended, "All voting systems SHALL be auditable."

Defining auditability of software-driven voting machines involves "high-level auditability requirements that essentially demand that any error, whether randomly occurring or maliciously introduced, is detectable (error is defined essentially as an incorrect vote total result)."

more at:
http://www.examiner.com/x-1969-Boston-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m2d18-Federal-study-says-all-touchscreen-voting-machines-allow-undetectable-hacking
STUDY:
http://www.eac.gov/program-areas/voting-systems/docs/nist-response.pdf/attachment_download/file

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Duh

we have been saying this for how many years now?

[derby378]

2. Gee, ya think?

But then again, the Repukes are counting on it...

[dipsydoodle]

3. There might be some things wrong with the UK

but you just can't beat our pieces of paper and pencils for voting. :)

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Amen to that.

[eridani]

8. Can't beat your parliamentary system for simplifying elections, either

I live in a state legislative district which is split between three national congressional districts, has parts of 5 different cities plus unincorporated areas, and also has lots of fire, water, sewer and school districts. There are no party slates to vote for; just individuals. You can vote for a Dem for two of three state legislative positions and a Repub for the third one if you want. King County, second largest in the US after LA county has parts of 17 different legislative districts, some of which are shared with neighboring counties. All counties have county executives and county council people as well. And there are judgeships, initiatives and referendums as well.

None of the people on DU who rant predictably about hand counting have been able to come up with a workable protocol for counting all of this rat's nest of things to vote on by hand. Andy Stephenson, who lived in King County and actually had a clue about the complexity of the system, favored optically scanned ballots with mandatory random auditing by hand count. Anybody who as actually bothered to work in some capacity with our elections department agrees with him.

[alittlelark]

5. This is a great study to send to thosenon-tech ppl

That have a hard time understanding how our votes have been hacked over the last 8 years.

I know of 2 myself.... they cannot accept that the 2004 vote was not accurate (cognitive dissonance).

[bleever]

6. I think they may be on to something.

:)

We still have a long way to go until there is a near-universal demand for transparency in elections. This is another good step.

:hi: kp.

[Stevepol]

7. Great article. Now if the right people would only pay attention! K&R!