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US Elections                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Hacking the Election: Security Flaws Left Unaddressed

by Eric M. Hoover




The 2002 Georgia Governor's election was a historic event.  Not only did Georgia become the first State to use electronic touch-screen voting machines in all its precincts, it also brought a sweeping victory for Republican Gubernatorial candidate, Sonny Perdue.  Perdue slaughtered the incumbent Democratic Governor Roy Barnes to become Georgia's first Rep. Governor in 135 years.

Coincidentally enough -- if one believes in coincidences -- the Ohio-based Diebold, which incidentally produces the electronic voting machines used in Georgia, is commanded by some of the GOP's largest national fundraisers. But that's not the shocking part. As many know, the Diebold electronic touch-screen voting machines appear to have dozens of security flaws in them, leaving "back doors" open for any who wish to hack into the machines.

It was, therefore, of little surprise when a file named "rob-georgia.zip" was found along with several other suspicious files when the machine's files were inspected.  Experts at Johns Hopkins University who performed more advanced testing of the Diebold machines found that there were also no features to keep voters from casting multiple votes.

These findings have put "the fear" in the minds of many concerned voters. Not only are electronic voting machines used in 80% or more States in the US, but also many new states are opting to use them in 2004 Elections, such as Maryland and California.  These machines currently cast no paper trail for experts to double check with if there is some sort of trepidation over election results.

On January 19th 2003, a team of computer experts set up an exercise: a one-day attempt to hack into Diebold voting machines. One day was plenty of time; the hackers managed to guess the passwords securing the voting system allowing them to cast multiple ballots in a matter of hours. They were also able to physically break into the machines with standard lock pick set in approximately ten seconds, permitting them to remove or attach various pieces of hardware that would interfere with the counting of electronic ballots.

The argument against electronic voting machines continues to grow with these new horrifying discoveries.  Even though there is no physical evidence that the Georgia election was "robbed" by the Republicans (the rob-georgia.zip and similar files are still under investigation) it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that these machines can be easily tampered with.

The phrase "stealing the election" may no longer be used to only describe one candidate's extreme victory over another.  It could now be used to blame an opposing party of hacking election results and causing chaos within the voting system.  Hackers who create virus programs that infect big businesses could now turn their attention towards the world of political hacking.

The institution of voting needs to be protected from sabotage by outside influences.  When the public loses confidence in the system they will lose confidence with the idea of voting itself. Before you know it, the political regimes could be checking out copies of "Html for Dummies" from the Library of Congress.

For more information on the Georgia-hacking story click here.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   





Action Alert!     
   

    
                                                                                        
To protest use of Electronic Voting Machines in the 2004 Elections please contact your local US Representative today -- out-of-State politicians never respond. See here for
US Representative and/or US Senator.  You may use the sample letter below:




Sample Letter:


Dear Senator/Representative,


Despite the notoriety of Diebold Inc. voting machines and the scandal of 2000 Presidential Elections involving their use, especially in Florida, and the upset of several elections in 2002, little is being done to remove Electronic Voting Systems or to create a paper trail. Please make the Elections in 2004 safe by eliminating the exposure to hacking that electronic voting systems introduce. You may refer to the May 15th article at Juryfury.com by Eric M. Hoover titled
Hacking the Election: Security Flaws Left Unaddressed, if you need information on this topic.




Sincerely,


Your Name
State of Residency









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