HaCKinG Democracy

[deep]

Electoral storm: HBO’s ‘Hacking Democracy’ takes a hard look at voting security

By Mark A. Perigard
Thursday, November 2, 2006

“Hacking Democracy.” Tonight at 9 on HBO. Grade: A

How safe is your vote?

With the nation ready to head to the polls on Tuesday - and Massachusetts voters about to decide a gubernatorial race noteworthy for its mudslinging - the HBO documentary “Hacking Democracy” raises enough questions about the security of the ballot box to perturb partisans of any stripe.
The thought of watching a documentary on possible voting fraud may sound as appealing as, say, a PBS special on mushroom farming (say, is it pledge week yet?), but “Hacking Democracy” (tonight at 9) unravels like a “24” episode - with enough twists to satiate conspiracy buffs.
Instead of Jack Bauer, we have a worthy stand-in in Caroline Rhea look-alike and Seattle grandmother Bev Harris.
Curious about her county’s new touch-screen voting machines, she started asking questions. What she uncovers is enough to prompt her to start her own grassroots organization (blackboxvoting.org) and to pursue questions of potential voter fraud across the nation.
Harris ultimately learns that Diebold Corp., one of the leading vendors of voting machines, sells equipment that apparently can be so easily hacked, one can leave no trace of ever having tampered with voting totals.

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=165262



This is real.

Elections are stolen.

There is no way to have recounts.


They have been trying to kill the "exit polling" for some time, now.

Exit polls have always been a reliable gage. For predicting outcomes.

Until 2000 and 2004, I wonder why?

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I've heard about that, it sounds scary. Kind of like Man Of The Year but unfortunately we don't end up with Robin Williams as President.

I don't have HBO This should be on one of the non-cable networks.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I found this on Wonkette

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3714

"It seems there's a little yellow button on the back of every touch-screen computer made by Sequoia Voting Systems, that allows any voter, or poll worker, or precinct inspector to set the system into "Manual Mode" allowing them to cast as many votes as they want."


I hoep my rinky dink little town still has the paper and the punch card, I'm a scared of that new fangled touch screen thing

 

[BonosSaint]

We now got the "new fangled touch screen thing."--same time they changed my polling place. Now if it was the old lever booth, I'd just be voting for senator, but maybe I'll play.

No, I do not trust.

 

[deep]

Florida Diebold machines help you pick the right candidate

Oct 30th 2006 7:41PM by Cyrus Farivar


Apparently Diebold's problems aren't limited to Maryland, Georgia or Alaska -- what a shocker. Down in the Sunshine State, during a week of early voting before next week's nationwide midterm election, certain Diebold machines have been registering some votes for Democrats as selections for the Republican candidate. For instance, Gary Rudolf, a voter at a polling site near Ft. Lauderdale, tried to vote for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis (D); however, when the Diebold machine gave him the final review screen, it showed his vote was about to be cast for Charlie Crist (R). The problem took three tries to get resolved with the help of a local poll worker. Mary Cooney, a Broward County Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman, informed The Miami Herald that it's "not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to recalibrate them on the spot -- essentially, to realign the video screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined in the poll-workers manual." Huh? How exactly does a computer -- one that is being used heavily for one day a year, and not a $100 PDA -- "slip out of sync" ? Further, no one in Broward County is even sure how large of a problem this is "because there's no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues, and no central database of machine problems." Is it any wonder that major candidates are urging voters to vote the analog old-fashioned way?

 

[BonosSaint]

So we helpless in all this?

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

So did anyone watch it?

According to Drudge..

12 SMARTCARDS GO MISSING IN TENNESSEE; CONTROL ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES
Fri Nov 03 2006 10:09:31 ET

Political insiders have expressed alarm after 12 voter smartcards have gone missing from one Shelby County, TN early vote location

The cards are used to activate electronic voting machine.

The location at the center of the controversy is Bishop Byrne High School on E. Shelby Drive in Memphis.

The polling place started out with 25 cards. By Wednesday, 11 were missing, says an eyewitness.

The location was given 5 more smartcards on Thursday.

And another card went missing

Someone possessing a smartcard could use 'off the shelf equipment' [equipment that reprograms the card] and alter it to be used multiple times, and cast multiple votes.

One concerned insider explains: "Shelby County Board of Elections has been notified. They said is was 'not a big deal' because, they said, the cards are deactivated. But the reality is, you can buy the equipment at computer stores to reactivate them. It's on the Internet how to reactivate the cards!"

Meanwhile, The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is reviewing reports by the Shelby County Election Commission that two people voted twice during early voting in Memphis.

Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons said he's referred the cases to the TBI for investigation along with other matters he declined to discuss.

Poll watchers are expected to turn out Tuesday to observe voting in Tennessee's heated U.S. Senate race between Chattanooga Republican Bob Corker and Memphis Democrat Harold Ford Jr.

 

[Salome]

now this sounds mighty interesting!

 

[deep]

So did anyone watch it?

.

I have it on my DVR (Tivo)



I don't have a lot of interest in watching,

I have been aware of how bad these machines are, for some time.

The GOP minimizes it, because they believe it gives them an advantage.
If they still lose on Tuesday, we may hear some complaints from them, too.

 

[trevster2k]

I am stunned at seeing a third of US voters being given these ridiculous machines as their method of voting.

Many people can't even set their clock on the DVD player or use ATMs yet they have to vote on a touch screen computer. It's gonna get ugly.

 

[melon]

It shouldn't come as a surprise. 90% of our politicians are computer illiterate, and the remaining 10% take advantage of that illiteracy for purposes of corruption and fraud.

Melon

 

[Rono]

Why is there not more outrage ? This is more dangerous for the democracy ( sp ) than a micheal J Fox advert or a married gay couple.

 

[Canadiens1131]

The ENTIRE doc is available on Google Video. This documentary has seriously disturbed me.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7236791207107726851&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en-CA

I am very interested in finding out how my local ridings count their votes, and Canada's voting practices now.

This fact that the memory cards that are used to store the vote data are the only thing that need to be modified to produce fraudulent vote counts - that should be scaring the shit out of any fan of democracy.