Diebold optical scan system hacked - what will the outcome be?

This issue came up some time ago and seems like it hasn't been brought up here yet, so here goes.

You can read the whole story from BlackBoxVoting.org

Diebold optical scan voting machines use a weird design where a memory card inserted into the machine contains the program the machine then runs - and there seems to be no safeguards against tampering.

With an altered memory card it is possible to alter votes without any error messages being given. It is also possible to 'preload' the cards with votes, while maintaining the total vote count as being accurate, again without any error messages.

These alterations are impossible to detect with the current safeguards in place - only a hand count will show the correct result.

This hack demonstrates that the voting system is in violation of current standards and could very well be fraudulently certified. The final report is due to be released on tuesday 5th of July. I'll receive a copy when it's released and can copy it here if needed.

Now the $1M question: How does this impact the future elections which might still be counted with those machines? Will the general public believe the results, even if no one has tampered with them? Do they have a reason to doubt the vote counts, even if they aren't conspiracy buffs?

Having the last few US presidential elections in mind, I wouldn't find it very surprising if voters would lose interest in voting because they couldn't be certain that the votes actually were cast as intended. What would that do to the turnout of voters? And if the turnout of voters would drop significantly below 50% of all who are (in theory) eligible for voting, could the result still be called democratic and would it represent the actual will of the citizens?

Please note that the actual methods how the system was hacked are not in the scope of this discussion. I don't want to stand in violation of the T&C.

Some related links from BBV:

www.bbvforums.org...

www.bbvforums.org...

I also received the final report about three hours ago, waiting to read it after work.

Discussion and comments relating to the report can be found here.

I must confess that I find the lack of interest to this topic pretty surprising, considering its importance and impact on all recent elections.

This will be my last post on this matter, if no one wants to discuss it further.

Recommendations
1. Further evaluation should be performed on the 1.96.x and 2.0.x versions of the Diebold optical scan system to determine whether they do or do not have the same fundamentally insecure architecture. A similar examination should also be performed on the Diebold touch-screens, including the TS-R4 and TS-R6 versions, the TSx version, and the new “VVPAT” version, along with any other component of the accumulation process for any of these systems.

2. Because memory cards have been given a pre-eminent position in the Diebold voting system studied, they should be deemed to contain critical data and should be considered to be a public document. Of course, they should be retained for 22 months in federal elections, as required by U.S. federal election law.

3. Memory cards or, in the event they are not available, the voting systems themselves, should be examined for all jurisdictions using any Diebold voting system which relies on this type of architecture. If manipulation is done properly, there will be no telltale anomalies in the reports printed for the public. In areas like Volusia County, ( 24)(25) (26) and Brevard County ( 27)(28) Florida, where significant anomalies have appeared related to vote tabulation, memory cards, or poll tapes, the memory cards should be certainly inspected by someone experienced in forensics.

4. The architecture of other manufacturers should be examined for similar vulnerabilities. Priority should be set for this examination according to the significance of the vendor.

Well it was a long read but well worth it. Quite amazing how easy it was to reprogram the memory card and not leave any signs of tampering, and even easier for Diebold just to write whatever they want in there in the first place.

I'd like to see the memory cards examined for every county that had voting anomalies, but there's so many cases of impossible counts out there and nobody's done anything to challenge them so far. This will probably just be ignored like all the rest of the evidence.

Well then imagine this....

the 2000 (or 4000?) "test" votes for Bush that were found on some machines during the morning of the election could've been planted there as a smoke screen. It's the basic "Look over here!" trick. Meanwhile, the machines have been backdoor coded with many more votes for Bush which go unnoticed due to the problem with the test votes. So they erase those votes, leaving the hidden votes to be counted in the final tally. I mean come on... Diebold as a company has their hands in so many Republican pockets it isn't even funny. And nobody in Washington gives a hot damn about it. My Representative certainly has heard from me about it. What about yours?

there is actually a video on this site that I posted about a software developer creating the program for this company that has a rich contract with some corp...

I don't want to muck up words, so i'll just find the video...

These people didn't care about a just election, they were more concerned about getting their million if they made sleezy software.

AHHHH YES, HERE IS THE THREAD:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's vvvvvvverrry informative....you'll be shocked.

[edit on 25-8-2005 by TrueLies]

I shudder to think how We The People not ony allowed the votes to be counted
using these machines, but then continue to live in denial of how easily the results
tallied by these machine can be altered.

Then again, a whole lot of people entrust their entire lives to Microsoft based software
equally clueless of how vulnerable they are to anyone with enough determination.

I'm honestly wondering how all of this will play out in history.