Disabling Electronic Voting Machines?

[benburch]

Hey, folks?

These electronic voting machines are rather fragile, and also depend on a reliable source of electricity to work.

Has anybody else considered that either side in the coming elections could exploit this?

The GOP (who control the energy sector) could choose to black out minority and other Democratic stronghold districts on election day.

Reactionary forces in the anti-Administration camp could attempt to monkey wrench machines in majority GOP districts by simply smashing them, by cutting their touch screen membranes, by killing power to the polling place, or by using a HERF device to fry their innards.

Mind you, I am NOT advocating any of this; I simply see it as one of the MANY things that could go wrong in November 2004.

With prior voting systems, a power loss would have been dealt with by using portable lanterns...

Comments and discussion appreciated!

-Ben

[T Wolf]

1. We had better be prepared

for every trick that could possibly be pulled. The repukes will stop at nothing to continue their history of stealing elections.

A power outage would simply be an 'act of god' which would reinforce their belief that god is a repug. And it would be difficult to trace.

I think it would take a more subtle approach than simply 'smashing' the machines in repuke areas. Certainly, we are more creative than that. NOT that I am actually encouraging or endorsing that course of action.

[elfwitch]

4. power outage...

The power goes out just before the results must be reported and, WHOOPSIE!! the databse crashed when the power went out. All of your information is lost. BOO HOO! Sorry I guess your votes (in a largely Dem area) just don't count. SHUCKS!

This could so happen! I'm sure if I thought of it they have too.

[ithacan]

2. sabotaging machines

I could see that some may see this also as an effective way to undermine the claims of the Diebolds and other scam artists pushing this down our throats...

[tom_paine]

3. I have thought of this -- shut down power and we are f*cked

Even if it WAS a legitimate terrorist strike, the Busheviks have so thoroughly lied and are so thoroughly distrusted by Free Americans not under the spell of Goebbels v2.0 (whom you could successfully persuade that 1 + 1 = 3 if the Party-Loyal Right-Wing Sub-Media decided to make that part of their agenda), that we would not believe it.

[Kelvin Mace]

5. Yep,

mentioned this to Dan Wallach.

Stun gun + USB cable = toasted machine.

David Allen
Publisher, CEO, Janitor
Plan Nine Publishing
1237 Elon Place
High Point, NC 27263
http://www.plan9.org

edit: typo

[benburch]

6. You don't even need to touch the machines.

A fellow in my area walked into several supermarkets with a toolbox. He was seen to flip a switch on the box, and all of the electronic devices (ATM machines, registers, PCs) in the store crashed, and many were physically damaged.

He was later arrested. I don't know if he has stood trial yet.

This is an example of a portable EMP or HERF device (not sure which he had) and what it can do.

You could actually disable the machines from outside the building with the right device. You'd just need to drive on by.

Of course, anybody with a pacemaker might be similarly "disabled"! In fact, this is my theory about why Cheney makes so very few public appearances, and why they have built him a bunker under the Vice President's residence.

-Ben

[markus]

9. Hell, you probably don't need a stun gun

I am one of the Human Leyden Jars who can get up a pretty nasty static charge just walking around in cold weather. My daughter won't kiss me when I'm sitting in car on that nice chenille seat fabric. I'm probably a candidate for spontaneous human combustion.

Just send me in their in a pair of cordorouys and point me at an unshieled port of any kind. One little finger at the USB or serial port, and they'll need a new motherboard.

(I used to service computers, so I know what I'm talking about. Still have my grounding strap, and save all of the tossable ones I ever run across with motherboards, hard drives, etc.)

[Tansy_Gold]

14. What about magnets?

You know, those super-powerful magnets that you buy at the state fair or whatever? if you had one in your pocket when you went to vote, would it disrupt things?

[benburch]

15. Nope.

A permanent magnet will do nothing interesting to a voting machine.

[Cleita]

7. Your post briefly touches on the problems we could have.

You should send this post in an email to each of the candidates. I think it's worthwhile for them to look into it before it's too late and we have a repeat of election 2000.

[lysergik]

8. While this is certainly a valid argument..

.. it would take a lot of power outages and suspicion would rise quickly across the US as this happened. Its far easier for them to just cook the source for the voting machines giving the election to whom they'd like.

[benburch]

10. A well-targeted regional blackout...

... could hit two or three swing states. Only one incident. Act of God. Later they claim to find a fried raccoon in a substation transformer.

[birdman]

11. Er, what was to prevent them from doing this before ?

Mechanical machines use electricity. Punch card readers
use electricity.

I really don't think that raging against the machine is
the answer here.

The lights went out on my essence, Mandrake.

[benburch]

13. Before...

... only the punch card READERS needed electricity. Voting could still happen, as the cards were punched with a stylus. One can record the votes at any time after the election, and most county computer centers, where such ballots were typically read, have backup generators.

The mechanical counter machines that I used a couple of time in Chicago in the 1970s were purely mechanical except for the light in the booth. An electrical outage would have minimal effect on the usability of those machines.

Likewise, hand marked machine-tallied paper ballots can be cast without power even if they cannot be counted without power.

This time around, electricity will be essential to the ballot casting process in a way that it never has been before.

-Ben

[realFedUp]

12. California Blocks Certification of Diebold Machines

__California Blocks Certification of Diebold Machines

"Marc Carrel, assistant secretary of state for policy and planning, told attendees Thursday at a panel on voting systems that California was halting the certification process for new voting machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems. The reason, Carrel said, was that his office had recently received 'disconcerting information' that Diebold may have installed uncertified software on its touch-screen machines used in one county ... Diebold officials, who were attending the meeting, seemed surprised by the announcement and expressed displeasure to several panelists afterward that it had been introduced in a public forum. They were unavailable for comment. Also present at the meeting were representatives from Solano, San Diego and San Joaquin counties, where officials are waiting for state certification to begin using the new machines." We demand a halt to certification of ALL electronic machines without voter-verified paper trails!
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61068,00.html

[benburch]

16. Can the Gropinator overturn this?

Anybody here know if under California law, the Governor can force certification of the voting machines?