It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.
Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.
"We believe these man-in-the-middle attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines," said Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team "We think we can do similar things on pretty much every electronic voting machine."
I cannot for the life of me understand why we have not done away with ALL of the e-voting machines in this country!
I have a great deal of faith in the American people to make the right decision and vote to give President Obama a second term.
I have virtually NO faith in the Republican party to play by the rules.
After what happened in 2000 during the Bush v Gore election, I have been convinced that the Republican motto is "win at all cost."
They no longer care about democracy, or fair play, or the will of the people. All they care about is winning.
And as long as these incredibly faulty machines are still being controlled by that party, and we know that they are, the ONLY way we have of beating them is by having our candidates win by the largest margin possible.
Unless something changes concerning these machines in the next year, the only way that we can ensure a victory for our democracy is by making sure that people turn out to vote, and to make sure the vote they cast is the one that is recorded.
Which is why whenever I hear a progressive suggest that they will stay home because this President is not EXACTLY who he wanted him to be, I literally want to throttle them into unconsciousness.
This is not a game, this is serious. The very definition of who Americans are is at risk and the Republicans have already demonstrated that they have NO intention of playing by the rules.
In other words, THIS seems like the perfect job for Homeland Security.
I have sent them an e-mail with the article, if you would like to do the same here is their contact information.
This is what we have to fear the most. The Kochhackers!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this,Oh VOTE we stand on guard for thee.
If you have these machines in your district (or any machines that do not create an auditable paper trail), consider voting by absentee ballot. That way there is a paper record of your vote.
ReplyDeleteWhat is really sad is that most Americans – and certainly Congress – would get outraged about this only if it were the Saudis (or some other middle-eastern Islamic group) who were hacking into our election machines and subverting our elections. The republicans subverting our democracy? Crickets. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteunfortunately this is OLD news - it was known before the 2008 elections.
ReplyDeleteThe people that control the voting don't want the MSM to let on to the general public that votes don't really count.
The electoral vote (which does count) has also been screwed with in favor of republicans, of course.
Yep, in OH we have the Diebold. Spent tons of money on the damn things.
ReplyDeleteYou are 100% right. The GOP will do ANYTHING to win. Change the requirements to vote? Yup. Gerrymander districts? Yup. Hack voter machines? Yup. That's exactly how they plan to win the next presidential election...not with their ideas and best candidate to lead our country...nope, by hacking the vote.
ReplyDeleteYour headline misspells "laboratory"; otherwise, great post!
ReplyDeleteIt should make up all weep.
And thus my suspicion that they "let" Obama win this time, because they knew a)McCain was McCain, b)Palin was cukoo for Cocoa Puffs, and c)the economy would be horrible and let's let Obama win (and by that I mean *not* have the Republicans steal the election this time) and then do everything to bring him down during his four years in office.
ReplyDeleteI do continue to fear the Diebolds, but it's not just the individual voting machines, it's the fact that officials have control, through their own computers, of sending in whatever edited numbers they'd like, even if they make no sense (ie, sending in more votes for the Republican in a district that is historically solidly blue).
And then we have nitwits like the election queen in Waukesha county in WI who, yes, according to this morning's paper, violated state law in not posting all returns on election night, but "it's OK", because she was just being a dipshit, and didn't do it intentionally (so concluded the state Government Accountability Board). She says she "forgot" to save the votes from Brookfield (heavily Republican) to her database--on her own personal computer no less--and then they just magically appeared the next morning to make the neck and neck undecidededly close election of the Supreme Court race not a problem anymore for the Republicans.
I truly think outside nations should monitor our elections just like we do for countries that we think might be ripe for voting fraud.
We have not done away with Diebold e-voting machines because they are mandated by law.
ReplyDeleteThe Help America Vote [Republican] Act was signed into law Oct. 29, 2002. [Weren't they thinking about bigger things then?] Electronic voting systems are mandated.
ReplyDeleteI vote paper ballot ALWAYS. Everybody should DEMAND to vote by paper ballot.
ReplyDelete"They no longer care about democracy, or fair play, or the will of the people. All they care about is winning."
ReplyDeleteWe were taught in high school that the responsibility of electoral college members was to vote not for the candidate for whom they were electors, but for the candidate who they thought would be the best president. It was within the realm of possibility, we were told, that a majority of the American people would make a "bad decision" about who they wanted as President, and in that case, it was the electors' responsibility to ensure that the "best" candidate won the election. In other words, representing the will of the people was not the most important aspect of being an elector.
Not elitist at all, right?!
What about 2004?
ReplyDeleteGoogle "Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?" or read the more recent Truthout article at http://www.truth-out.org/new-court-filing-reveals-how-2004-ohio-presidential-election-was-hacked/1311603015
@omomma 5:05 and 5:09 am
ReplyDelete"The Help America Vote [Republican] Act was signed into law Oct. 29, 2002."
I know that the old voting (aka "hanging chad" machines) were outlawed, but don't know the particulars of this Act. I my county (Ventura CA) we vote using ball point pens (similar to school standardized tests "fill in the bubble with a Number 2 pencil" for those old enough to remember); the paper ballots are then fed through an optical scanner and are retained for posterity.
The absentee ballot suggested by @Anonymous 3:00 am sounds like a viable alternative (assuming the Postal Service survives).
Thanks for bringing this to attention, Gryph. Maybe we should bring back the old voting machines and outlaw "butterfly" ballots instead.
Didn't LIEBOLD change their name?
ReplyDeleteI have voted by absentee ballot since around 2000, and that's good, but did anyone wonder why suddenly the United States Postal Service is under attack, and small rural post offices are closing?
I met two women from Malta on my last vacation. They asked me, "Why do you Americans hate Obama? We will take him!" (that, by the way, is the question we are most asked when traveling in Mexico.)
We had amazing conversations about voting. They, along with me don't get why we vote on Tuesday. Who votes mid-week, then doesn't give people paid time off to vote?
Its all just bs anyway and now I'm pissed off and with no coffee. :-(
Store time.
Has MA gone quiet or found a new thread to post on?
Any shifty gov't that wants to guarantee the outcome of elections knows the go-to people are @ Diebold USA.
ReplyDelete~Canuck~
And yes folks, demand paper ballots every time you vote about anything.
ReplyDeleteDo NOT use those voting machines.
~Canuck~
@Molly, I think they also "let" Obama win because they knew that the f'd up mess that Bush left would be too much to fix in one or maybe even two terms. They also knew that the next president of either party would end up suffering politically from the f'd up mess Bush left.
ReplyDeleteBRAVO !!!!
ReplyDeleteWell said Gryphen. Especially the part about throttling people who want to not vote. I have also been disappointed in some things POTUS has done as well, but he has a huge bunch of disingenuous nutbags to deal with in Congress and he HAS gotten a lot done anyway. Giving the GOP more leverage would be disasterous !
This was well known _years_ ago.
ReplyDelete2000 and 2004 elections were assured to be given to Republicans by the CEO of Diebold. The perfectly complicit Democrats had no complaint, even with solid evidence including web pages with detailed instructions on how to hack these machines without even being in the same room. Democracy isn't in danger. It's dead here in the USA. And both parties like it that way.
Homeland Security? Hell, i'm contacting the local election commission!
ReplyDelete85,000 residents have been wondering how they've been saddled with a 500 pound evil walrus for a sheriff, an extremely self-serving nepotistic county mayor, and a school superintendent who bought their Doctorate from a non-accredited online university (where they obviously didn't teach ethics).
Uh, that's just for starters...
... no wonder Sevier County, TN is the most corrupt county in the most corrupt state.
This also explains why the County Mayor will NOT answer questions about his beloved Diebold machines. The populace has been complaining for years that the elections MUST BE RIGGED as they keep trying to vote the sonofabitch OUT!
The really scary part: As the micro goes, so does the macro!
Thanks, Gryphen, I sent an e-mail about this as well. I'm glad we don't have this in Alaska, but something definitely needs to be done about this elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI have been saying this since 2000, and have been writing letters to everyone I can think of. I either get NO response, or a polite 'thank you for your concern' form letter. I have been trying to get this across in 2008, when we had all three branches in Dem hands. No response. I have been telling President Obama that this should be one of his BIGGEST concerns. No response.
ReplyDeleteI am writing ONE MORE time, and then that's it! :/
I've always thought this is the heart of the beast. The thing that makes all others irrelevant. Bev Harris has fought on this issue courageously at Black Box Voting for years and years. All the stunning irregularities each voting cycle get swept under the rug--Nothing to see here. When the media pronounced exit polls "no good" after the 2000 election, instead of realizing they were telling us the ELECTION reults were no good, our Democracy has become untethered from the will of the people. There should be rioting in the streets but instead we put our attention on celebrities.
ReplyDeleteVoting absentee is not a solution. If you notice, they announce the results based on the electronic votes very soon after voting closes. So if the machines are hacked that's that. Absentee votes only count if they can change the results.
ReplyDeleteI think Obama's win was way larger than the votes indicated. The only way for Democrats to win anymore is to have such an overwhelming win they don't dare to totally reverse it.
ReplyDeleteHelp America Vote Act is so Orwellian. Everything Republican has become Orwellian. Help America Vote for a Permanent Republican majority is more like it...
ReplyDeleteI re call the letter from the head of Diebold to GWB that he would "personally deliver Ohio for you". In the second election he did not win.
ReplyDeletePrescient, I guess.
This has been going on for a very long time. And nothing has been done about it. How do you think bush jr was elected TWICE to demolish our economy and lead us to infinite war?
ReplyDeleteUnless we demand paper ballots, and refuse to use the machines, it will continue.
Paper ballots do nothing. If you have 10 paper Democratic votes, that just means you need to 'create' 15 electronic Republican votes. Even if every Democrat voted on paper, they'd just create as many votes as they need. Unless there is an audit trail, you won't catch them. They control the Governor's offices and Sec'y of States. They will never allow an audit. "It's just sour grapes" Remember 'Sore-Losermann' from 2000? If you don't require all paper, you can't beat them.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they make the voting machine dispense a receipt after the vote is complete? I don't buy the notion that it can't be done. If the ATM machine can give you a receipt add a deposit and subtract to give you an account balance within a few seconds, the voting machine can be configured to do the same thing to say voted Dem or Repuke.
ReplyDeleteMy vote goes to this, the Best comment in this thread:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
Your headline misspells "laboratory"; otherwise, great post!
It should make up all weep.
4:59 AM
Agree with FED UP- I've been sending letters and e-mails for years, forword this to all your reps in office
ReplyDeleteAnd vote as if your life depended on it, because it does.
And Gryph is spot on about the whining progressives because their pet issue didn't get addressed/fixed by President Obama. It's as galling to me as one issue voters (like anti abortion, anti gay, etc).
I went straight to the White House website and wrote the President about this matter, especially as this is the sort of way he could be deprived of a win in 2012.
ReplyDeleteM from MD
I work for my county Board of Elections.
ReplyDeleteI wish more people knew how these machines are tested and verified to be working properly yet when we have the public logic and Accuracy testing the only ones who show up are us and we have to be there. When we go around to check the polls the only group that has challenger and watchers in place are the Republicans. When the Provisional ( paper ballots) are counted the only ones watching the procedures are the Republicans. I could go into great detail and I wish some of you could answer my phone when all sorts of crazy call. In our office there is a pride in the fact we work extremely hard to protect the integrity of our results yet sometimes it is like talking to a brick wall when it comes to voters.
You want to sort out the elections then do what they do. Have someone at every poll and when the hourly totals are reported get the numbers. The know exactly how many Dem and Repub voters have voted before I do and I work at the County Board of Elections. Be at the polls, be at the counting of ballots. Have representatives there when the results come in.Volunteer to be an Election judge. I get so tired of people telling me we fix the election yet have no desire to come watch things being done or participate in any way. Each machine in our county prints a totals report which covers each each race and if those numbers do not match what is being reported then it's easy to track exactly where the error is. We can tell you by reading the printout the number of votes on each machine in each precinct in our county but it would all be in vain because no one wants to hear it. I do not look forward to the next election as people are even crazier than usual and it is getting harder and harder to be impartial and non-partisan and not tell people off for being idiots. Sorry for the vent but I get annoyed when people go off about the voting units. If you try hard enough anything can be made fraudulent. Have a great night and remember to get out there and vote in 2012.
6:40 p.m., thanks for your comment and insight! You provide a lot of information I've never even thought about--the fact that the parties can send people to oversee the process, and the fact that, at least in your area, Repubs do and Dems don't. I plan to do some more research about this issue and see if there is a way I can get involved in helping ensure accurate reporting in 2012. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that some of you have contacted the White House, letting them know about these voting machines. I think the DNC, had better get on the ball, and thwart this.
ReplyDelete