Attn Geeks: could the GOP fake the BBV computer logs?

[Atman]

Randi is talking about Bev Harris' subpoena of ALL the voting logs, upload logs, modem logs, everything associated with the BBV's. And of course, FOIA requests are being ignored...or they're stalling for time?

Just wondering...say Bev gets all the material she is after. Can it be faked? Can they be furiously making new, phony logs? I have so little faith that anyone in the GOP would actually do anything honest that I just can't imagine them sitting there doing nothing. So what ARE they doing? CYA, maybe?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Of course. they are just text files

without a trail, there can be no guarantees.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Sure.

Faking logs is trivial, if you know how to do it.

[Caution]

3. If these machines were hacked

it would be rank amateurism if they didnt also alter the logs as part of the hack.

[neohippie]

4. still there are other ways to catch hackers

There are experts in forensics the science of tracing what happened on a computer system and they have ways of tellling of a log has been faked.

for example, if the computer is backed up to tape on a daily basis, you can also request the backup tapes, usually stored offsite, and then compare the state of the log file with the file on the tape.

Plus there are other methods, for retrieving deleted files etc...

[shance]

5. So this confirms these machines have to be scrapped period.

There is no other way. The recounts however well-intentioned are a joke as far as getting a truthful result. Finding the fraud is essentially a needle in a haystack, which, as you mentioned can be stalled and changed for our reading pleasure*

We have to return to paper and ballot with the total elimination of these machines. Period.

[Caution]

7. considering that florida and ohio mostly used optical scan

a recount would be useful (though I personally am not hopeful on this...as much as it pains me i think Bush won this election and I think this recount stuff is basically draining our credibility)...

The pure EV stuff must provide an instant audit trail. I envision a dump of the audit every 100 votes, delayed by 100 votes (basically after the 200th vote is cast the machine dumps the audit to a printer). This preserves voter privacy by delaying the dump until well after the voter has left the polling place and it also provides a record without allowing time for alteration of the machine.

[RawMaterials]

6. there could be gaps in the logs I would want logs from all isp's

then you could trace it down.