Electronic Ballot Boxes are Bad

I've lost track of how many times I've blogged on black box voting. I've explained in clear and obvious terms that ANY kind of electronic machine can be easily rigged to make it look like you voted for one candidate when it actually records a vote for another. I'm guessing that not a lot of politicians have read my posts since so many states around the US are still using this technology to cast doubt on their election results protect their democracy. Enter even more evidence that electronic voting machines in general, and Diebold brand voting machines specifically, are not secure in the least. Check out this clip from [http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/18/open-your-diebold-accuvote-ts-with-a-minibar-key/|a September 18, 2006 post] at Engadget.Com that talks about the latest exploit one can utilize in hacking Diebold machines, this time discovered by those braniacs at Princeton :

... after giving a presentation to some computer science colleagues last week, Prof. Ed Felten was approached by Chris Tengi, a member of the department's technical staff, who pointed out that the key that opens the AccuVote-TS voting machine is very similar to a key that he has at home. Tengi's key opened the voting machine, and upon further investigation, the Princeton posse discovered that both keys are actually a common office furniture type used for hotel minibars, electronic equipment and jukeboxes. Furthermore, said keys can e! asily be bought on eBay or from various online retailers.

This isn't the first flaw the Princeton folks worked out. Check out the below video: I'll try to get an mp4 of this hosted just in case you don't care for the flash. Regardless, the main thing you need to realize about this is that here is another example of our leaders letting us down. With all the stuff they've screwed up, how can we trust them when they say they're going to deliver a secure election and accurate results? Please contact your local politicians and let them know that you want elections with NON-electronic machines counting your vote. Hell--the absolute safest way to do elections is with paper ballots and humans counting them. This isn't about being partisan, Democrat or Republican--this is about knowing that the right guy is in the White House. How poorly will history look back on us when they see what a mess Bush made of things--especially when you note the contravercies that erupted in 2000 and 2004? Shouldn't we ALL want to know for sure who should be in the Oval Office? How can you be against having the most secure elections possible?

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