Diebold’s voting machines scare me more and more every time I read about them. The latest bombshell? It’s not bad enough that the individual voting machines aren’t as secure as they should be, but the tabulation machines that tally all the votes from the individual machines can be manipulated by entering two digits.
Issue: Manipulation technique found in the Diebold central tabulator — 1,000 of these systems are in place, and they count up to two million votes at a time.
By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location, a second set of votes is created. This set of votes can be changed, so that it no longer matches the correct votes. The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set. It takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate the risks.
This program is not “stupidity” or sloppiness. It was designed and tested over a series of a dozen version adjustments.
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The central tabulator is far more vulnerable than the touch screen terminals. Think about it: If you were going to tamper with an election, would you rather tamper with 4,500 individual voting machines, or with just one machine, the central tabulator which receives votes from all the machines? Of course, the central tabulator is the most desirable target.
With voting systems like this installed in key states, it’s frighteningly possible that it won’t matter who anybody votes for.
(via MeFi)