Ways to Alter an Election Are limited Only by Your Imagination

Illustration by Matt Mahurin, Rolling Stone

Two articles came to my attention this week that underscored my concern that the implemention of electronic voting nationally is not secure.

Computer scientist Avi Ruben wrote an article in Forbes that is reproduced in Salon.com that outlines multiple ways that people could corrupt the counting of votes made electronically without being dectected. His solution is to use computer technology to collect and print a paper representation of voter intentions that could then be read and verified using existing scanner technology.

The second article shows how two untrained women were able to hack a Diebold voting machine in 4 minutes with tools that cost less than $15. By removing the machines memory card and replacing it with a card that's been tampered with, the results could be altered without a trace. Black Box Voting was the source and has more extensive pictures and commentary. They also discuss the security limitations of allowing poll workers to take the machines home with them at night for safekeeping.