Have you heard about
this little snafu with the electronic voting machines in Florida? When some voters choose a democrat candidate, the machines are apparently repeatedly registering republicans instead.
One voter needed assistance from an election official, and even then, needed three tries to convince the machine that he wanted to vote for Democrat Jim Davis in the gubernatorial race, not his Republican opponent Charlie Crist.
Another voter who went Democrat across the board kept finding Republicans listed in the summary screen. He made repeated attempts until, finally, the machine registered his votes correctly, and he cast his ballot.
My geeky friends sneer in disgust whenever electronic voting machines come up, but I never understood why until Kyle pointed me to this study from Princeton University. It turns out that elctronic voting machines are insanely easy to hack. A couple of points to consider:
You can put software on these machines that can change all the records, logs, and counters to whatever results you want.
This software is nearly impossible to detect
It can be installed within one minute by anyone who has physical access to the machine or memory card.
These machines are also susceptible to a virus that can “spread malicious software automatically and invisibly from machine to machine during normal pre- and post-election activity.”
Voting machines were used in Florida and Ohio during the last two presidential elections, the same states that pretty much decided the elections, respectively.
The company that makes these machines is called Diebold. During the last Presidential election, their CEO Walden W. O’Dell wrote in an letter for a Republican fundraiser: “I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”
I’m not one for conspiracy theories. But still, sounds pretty fishy, doesn’t it?