[ISN] Activists Find More E-Vote Flaws

[InfoSec News]

Forwarded from: Steven Moshlak <smoshlak at interserv.com>

Okay, my two cents-

Disenfranchised or Disrespected?  I was a Judge and a Deputy
Registrar-Recorder when I lived in Los Angeles, California for nearly
15 years.  Eligible voters were required to do three things; register
at least thirty days before the election, when voting, use a template
that contained a "job card," and make sure that the "chips" were
cleaned off of the back of the card.

There is no excuse for non-registration.  The purpose is to verify and
validate that the individual meets the criteria and has does have the
right to vote.

At one point, all ballots were in English, since English is our native
tongue and the understanding of English is a prerequisite for U.S.
Citizenship.  Since 1974, the ballots are issued in Korean,
Vietnamese, Spanish, Chinese, ad nauseum, in order not to
"disenfranchise" people, U.S citizens or non-U.S Citizens.  That's
right, people who are non-U.S. Citizens vote in elections, in
California (illegally, of course).

Now comes people who offer a technological revolution, with e-voting.  
The blind feel they have been left out, the individual in the
wheelchair feels left out, the elderly can't understand ballots and
supposedly punch the wrong hole, and so the story goes, on and on.  
Please, have some cheese and crackers, with your whine.

In the United States, if one is unable to comprehend the ballot, there
is something known as "non-compis mentis."  If you have earned your
U.S. Citizenship, you should have a basic understanding of the English
language. In the event of physical impairment, spouses or a
representative of the voter has been allowed in the polling booth to
aid and assist in the voting process or they can vote in abstentia, in
the privacy of their own home, if they so choose.

Anybody who cannot register, due to laziness (motor voter, police
station, fire station, by mail, etc.), has abrogated his/her right to
vote and forget "provisional ballots."  Can't read or comprehend the
English Language?  We have schools who would look forward to helping
you in learning the English Language.  All some people have to do is
make the effort.

Anybody who is too lazy to verify that the chips have been cleaned-off
of the back of the card or to look at the card to verify that they
indeed punched the holes in a clean matter, after being repeatedly
warned to clean the card and verify the punch, respectively, abrogates
his/her right to vote.  "Them's the rules."

I am tired of hearing about "voter intent," since it is obvious that
one must be mentally competant to vote and exercise such due care.

I say, go back to the "job card" method, since we know it works and
have people take a novel idea as "responsibility" for their own
actions.  Folks, there isn't a perfect system or will one ever come
about, on a magnitude of this scale.


Steven Moshlak

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "InfoSec News" <isn at c4i.org>
To: <isn at attrition.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 6:52 AM
Subject: [ISN] Activists Find More E-Vote Flaws


> http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65031,00.html
>
> By Kim Zetter
> Sep. 21, 2004
>
> Voting activist Bev Harris and a computer scientist say they found
> more vulnerabilities in an electronic voting system made by Diebold
> Election Systems, weaknesses that could allow someone to alter votes
> in the election this November.
>
> Diebold said Harris' claims are without merit and that if anyone did
> manage to change votes, a series of checks and balances that
> election officials perform at the end of an election would detect
> the changes.
>
> Harris demonstrated the vulnerabilities to officials in the
> California secretary of state's office several weeks ago and will be
> showing them to federal legislative staff and journalists Wednesday
> in Washington, D.C. Harris and another activist have filed a lawsuit
> against Diebold in California, which the state has joined,
> maintaining that Diebold engaged in aggressive marketing to sell
> millions of dollars worth of equipment that it knew was insecure.
> Harris and the activist stand to make millions from the suit if they
> and the state win their case.
>
> The vulnerabilities involve the Global Election Management System,
> or GEMS, software that runs on a county's server and tallies votes
> after they come in from Diebold touch-screen and optical-scan
> machines in polling places. The GEMS program generates reports of
> preliminary and final election results that the media and states use
> to call the winners.