Election -aagh!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 6, 2012 at 3:34pm

I don't know whether that's a joke or not.  I do know that it isn't funny in the slightest measure.  If it is, indeed, for real, SOMEONE damned well should be in deep feces!

Permalink Reply by Grinning Cat on November 6, 2012 at 4:23pm

The scarier part is that electronic machines can flip votes invisibly, without alerting the voter.

Reading the description is scary enough, though. "Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope." The person describes their further investigative process: it turned out that the Romney area on the touchscreen was expanded to mostly cover Obama's, down to the bottom of the black checkbox. Only the small white sliver below responded to select Obama. All the other buttons were fine.

A hypothesis I'll suggest:

This could have been the "man in the middle" attack whose proof of concept I read about in the last year or so: a small electronic module can be interposed between the touchscreen and the main board.

The voting machine model it was demonstrated on uses a common office-supply key to unlock its case, and the tamperer can remove the module afterwards, leaving no trace.

This doesn't require hacking the voting machine's software. The module need only alter touches from one area on the screen to make them "be" on another area of the screen.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 6, 2012 at 6:31pm

This is one among many reasons why I prefer the optical scanners which Ohio uses.  Yeah, the scanners can be compromised, too, but in a pinch, you go back and Read The Ballots BY HAND.  Crude, maybe, but there IS a paper record!

Sometimes the state of the art is not the choice to make.

Permalink Reply by Grinning Cat on November 7, 2012 at 12:31am

Amen!!! (In the sense of "What he said!"; no spooks needed.)

At least Obama won by enough votes that stealing a few thousand wouldn't change things.

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 6, 2012 at 8:19pm

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on November 6, 2012 at 10:39pm

that's a good one Ruth

Permalink Reply by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 6, 2012 at 10:38pm

Obama will win. He's not perfect, but Romney would have been truly awful.

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on November 6, 2012 at 10:39pm

yeah news reports are saying Obama wins re-election

Permalink Reply by Chris G on November 7, 2012 at 12:55pm

I wonder how international voting observers will end up rating the election.