freedom-to-tinker.com — The access panel door on a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine ? the door that protects the memory card that stores the votes, and is the main barrier to the injection of a virus ? can be opened with a standard key that is widely available on the Internet...
Sep 18, 2006 View in Crawl 4
mullingSep 18, 2006
Voting is the only method we have to peacefully transfer power in this country. The operating word here is 'peacefully.'Rigging the elections is really taking a tiger by the tail. The republicans have used their ill-gained authority to commit so many deplorable acts, and loot so much wealth, that they have a lot to fear when they lose power. Inevitably there will be repercussions for their abuses. Even now when they have the reins, they're still going down as their culture of corruption catches up with them in the courts. Isn't that right, Mr. Abramoff?There are still ways to transfer power without voting (just ask our friend Augusto Pinochet), they're just not peaceful. Nonetheless, one way or another power will change hands again. *Grabs popcorn*
Closed AccountSep 19, 2006
US needs to beg the UN to monitor the next elections. You guys are ridiculously stupid.
daltonamesSep 19, 2006
You have to look at the history of the situation to find the truth about why these problems are happening.1) In 2000, the hanging-chad debacle resulted in billions of dollars being pledged to upgrade voting machines throughout the U.S. Lots of dollar signs flashed before the eyes of Diebold executives.2) In 2001, Diebold bought McKinney-Texas based voting equipment maker Global Election Systems Inc. (You can google this for verfication) Why didn't they just develop their own machine? Because virtually every COUNTY in the U.S. has different rules for voting machines, it takes years of jumping through bureaucratic hurdles just to get machines approved in a few counties, much less the entire U.S.. Global's machines were already certified in many, many states. And they would also be hiring employees familiar with election laws around the country.3) This is where the problem began. You see, since there was NO MONEY in voting machines prior to 2000, Global Election Systems Inc's machines were basically crap. Before 2000, they didn't have money for R&D. 4) Five years later, these are basically the same crappy machines with a few modifications. Any post 2001 changes can be blamed on Diebold. Anything prior to 2001 is the fault of Global. Remember, due to bureaucratic red tape, the recertification proces can take 1- 2 years just to add a major software PATCH to these machines, depending on the judgement of third-party software certification firms. It is truly a mess.Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, the crappiness of the product is primary due to the bureaucracy surrounding the voting machine certification process. The real conspiracy is why Diebold has not gotten out of the voting machine business altogether, instead of continuing to allow it to destroy the company's reputation.
bcnewmanSep 19, 2006
All these stories about Diebold machines being hacked is just prep for when the Dems lose. This will let them blame everything except their own ideas ...
hls1Sep 19, 2006
This sounds like an excellent idea. A big database of votes with associated transaction numbers, that anyone could access. You type in your transaction number, or anyone's for that matter, and it shows who that person voted for. You could obtain the entire list of transaction numbers and their associated votes for a whole county, or even a state or the entire country. Anyone interested in the security of the election would simply hang on to their receipt and then check the database at home. If even a small number of people found discrepancies, it would be a big news story. For a paper trail, two receipts could be printed, and one put on file.I guess fanatics for the losing party could try to create fake receipts after the election and argue that it was fraudulent, but perhaps the paper trail receipts could be used in that case.The biggest risk to this openly-viewable database might be a "Jurassic Park" problem (remember that the database tracked all the original dinosaurs, but failed to report the new ones that would have revealed the dinosaurs could breed). Perhaps extra votes could be inserted into the database, corresponding to transaction numbers that were never issued.