AP: Computer Experts Fear Recall Voter Fraud (BBV)

[hedda_foil]

Please rate this critical story a five to keep it at the top of Yahoo "highest rated" and keep this thread kicked.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=511&e=1&u=/ap/recall_recount_trouble

Computer Experts Fear Recall Voter Fraud
Mon Oct 6, 5:25 AM ET

By RACHEL KONRAD, Associated Press Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Punch-card ballots from Tuesday's historic recall election are sure to get a going-over by political activists, but some computer scientists think touch-screen voting machines deserve just as much scrutiny.


AP Photo



While punch-card ballots caused headaches for Florida election officials with their "hanging" and "pregnant" chads, 10 percent of the touch-screen machines in California don't produce paper printouts. And no printouts, the scientists say, would make a legitimate recount impossible.


"You can't do a meaningful recount if the question is about the integrity of the voting machines themselves," said David Dill, a computer science professor at Stanford University. He urged voters in the four counties using touch-screen terminals to vote with absentee ballots.


The concern of Dill and some of his colleagues was dismissed as overblown and irresponsible by county registrars and executives at the companies that sell and update the electronic voting machines.


None of the elections officials who supervise the 50,000 touch-screen machines serviced nationwide by Diebold Election Systems has reported glitches or computer hacks that have resulted in known miscounts or fraud, said Mark Radke, director of the voting industry division of North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold.


But according to a July study by Johns Hopkins and Rice universities, any clever hacker could break into Diebold's system and vote multiple times. Researchers found it was theoretically possible to insert "back doors" into software code that would allow hackers — or insiders — to change future voters' choices and determine the outcome.

[hedda_foil]

1. Sorry. This is a dupe. Here's the original thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=151592

I alerted on myself. Please kick the other thread.