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December 14, 2005: Due to contractual non-performance and security d esign issues, Leon County (Florida) supervisor of elections Ion Sancho h as announced that he will never again use Diebold in an election. He has requested funds to replace the Diebold system from the county. On Tuesd ay, the most serious hack demonstration to date took place in Leon Count y The Diebold machines succumbed quickly to alteration of the votes. Th is comes on the heels of the resignation of Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell, an d the announcement that a stockholder's class action suit has been filed against Diebold by Stull, Stull & Brady and another firm, Scott & Scott . Further hack testing on additional vulnerabilities is tentatively sche duled before Christmas in the state of California. Finnish security expert Harri Hursti, together with Black Box Voting, dem onstrated that Diebold made misrepresentations to Secretaries of State a cross the nation when Diebold claimed votes could not be changed on the memory card (the credit-card-sized ballot box used by computerized votin g machines. A test election was run in Leon County on Tuesday with a total of eight b allots. Six ballots voted "no" on a ballot question as to whether Diebol d voting machines can be hacked or not. Herbert Thompson and by Harri Hursti voted "yes" indicating a belief that the D iebold machines could be hacked. At the beginning of the test election the memory card programmed by Harri Hursti was inserted into an Optical Scan Diebold voting machine. A "zer o report" was run indicating zero votes on the memory card. In fact, how ever, Hursti had pre-loaded the memory card with plus and minus votes. The eight ballots were run through the optical scan machine. The standard Diebold-supplied "ender card" was run through as is normal procedure en ding the election. No:6 However, just as Hursti had planned, the results tape read: Yes:7 ; No:1 The results were then uploaded from the optical scan voting machine into the GEMS central tabulator, a step cited by Diebold as a protection agai nst memory card hacking. The central tabulator is the "mother ship" that pulls in all votes from voting machines. However, the GEMS central tabu lator failed to notice that the voting machines had been hacked. No:1 This videotaped testing session was witnessed by Black Box Voting investi gators Bev Harris and Kathleen Wynne, Florida Fair Elections Coalition D irector Susan Pynchon, security expert Dr. Herbert Thompson, and Susan B ernecker, a former candidate for New Orleans city council who videotaped Sequoia-brand touch-screen voting machines in her district recording vo te after vote for the wrong candidate. The Hursti Hack requires a moderate level of inside access. It is, howeve r, accomplished without being given any password and with the same level of access given thousands of poll workers across the USA. It is a parti cularly dangerous exploit, because it changes votes in a one-step proces s that will not be detected in any normal canvassing procedure, it requi res only a single a credit-card sized memory card, any single individual with access to the memory cards can do it, and it requires only a small piece of equipment which can be purchased off the Internet for a few hu ndred dollars. One thousand two hundred locations in the US and Canada use Diebold vot ing machines. In each of these locations, typically three people have a high level of inside access. Temporary employees also often have brief a ccess to loose memory cards as machines are being prepared for elections . Poll workers sometimes have a very high level of inside access. Nation al elections utilize up to two million poll workers, with hundreds or th ousands in a single jurisdiction. Many locations in the US ask poll workers to take voting machines home with them with the memory cards inside. Memory cards are held in a compartment protected by a small plastic seal. However, these simple seals can be defeated, and Hursti has found evide nce that the memory card can be reprogrammed without disturbing the seal by using a telephone modem port on the back of the machine.
html) Over the objections of Cuyahoga Cou nty citizens, and relying on the veracity of Diebolds statements, the bo ard has chosen to purchase the machines. According to Public Records obtained by Black Box Voting, Diebold has pro mulgated misrepresentations about both the Hursti Hack and another kind of hack by Dr. Herbert Thompson to secretaries of state, and to as many as 800 state and local elections officials.
Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) You BET there will be a full report. This is just the preliminary heads-u p Also: this was all done without getting any passwords for any system. All we had was the same degree of physical access that any mid-to-high leve l elections staffer or official would have. In any county you can figure there will be at least three people (the top guy in the department, the top tech guy and his backup) with enough access to do this and often mo re. And that's in counties that are least trying for a reasonable level of se curity. All too often they either allow Diebold on-site employees/contra ctors too much access or they practically turn the whole process over to Diebold. The latter is more common in smaller/rural counties but not un heard of in bigger. In such cases the number of potential fraudsters goes up.
Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) The media in Tallahasse ignored this. I live here in Jeb's back yard and when I called the editor at the Tallahasse Democrat, she argued with me that the Diebold CEO resignation and impending lawsuit were not signific ant. I then called Ion Sancho, Supervosor of electios and he told me of the plan to dump the Diebold machines.
Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) The Tallahassee Democrat has done very good coverage of this. They have a lready published articles earlier, and this project was completed after deadline today. I expect you will see it appear tomorrow or the next day . Keep the tone positive, beca use you will see mainstream media coverage. The press deadline was well past when we finished at 7 pm tonight.
Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Bev, as I have posted on the Brad Blog, The Tallahassee Democrat was trad ed by Knight-Ridder for a strange deal with Gannett. The new editor deci ded to put national news and other new items on the back pages and wrote and editorial as to why this was their "editorial" decision. Since then it has had (IMHO)nothing but fluff pieces and recipes on the front to p acify the Bible thumpers who have taken over the politcal spectrum of th is area. So don't tell me to stay positve when I feel as if my Constituional Right to a free press has been usurped by the right wi ng political forces in this country. I will not be silent and I will not put a "positive" SPIN on anything as long as our Constitutional Rights (like the one to vote) are being stripped everyday! I live as an out Gay person in this area and have lost employment because I will not be sile nt! I have had violence perpetuated on me and friends because I am Gay a nd I will not be silent and I will not be "positive" when there is littl e or nothing to be pos}itive about.
Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Was it traded after July 2005? Because the Tallahassee Democrat provided some of the first coverage of the Hursti hacks in Leon County. You'll fi nd their articles by clicking the "News" tab (top left) at this site. This is a very controversial issue and sometimes newspapers report on thi ngs that are negative -- like the Florida Supervisors saying the Voting Rights Act is unneccessary -- but that doesn't mean the reporter shares those beliefs. It is very important to report those negative things and get them on record. I can't speak for their coverage on other issues, as I don't follow that. On this issue, their recent coverage is less pleasing than their earlier coverage, which is why I wonder when the corporate governance changed. T here are also big difference among reporters as to perspective and "spin ."
html - June 2005 - r ather nasty coverage, but reflects on Diebold more than the reporter I t hink, though i...
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