MIT: Hackers could alter ballots in widely used voting app

[usaf-vet]

Source: AP

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An internet voting app that has been used in pilots in West Virginia, Denver, Oregon and Utah has vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to change a person’s vote without detection, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The analysis of the Voatz app, which has mostly been used for absentee voters and overseas military personnel, found that attackers could “alter, stop or expose how an individual has voted.”

Voting security experts have long argued that online voting is dangerously insecure.

“We all have an interest in increasing access to the ballot, but in order to maintain trust in our elections system, we must assure that voting systems meet the high technical and operation security standards before they are put in the field,” Daniel Weitzner, an MIT scientist who oversaw the report, said Thursday.




Read more: https://apnews.com/708a578811bfdcffec1f2cfbae3cc063

---

All forms of electronic voting are vulnerable to hacking. Paper ballots might still be the most secure method of providing secure election results. Including a reproducible audit of the vote tallies and the legitimate winners.

[MFGsunny]

1. K & R for visibility n/t

[2naSalit]

2. Demand PAPER BALLOTS in your states, people!!!

And call your Sec of State to make sure they know you are upset about the security of your state's voting system.

[live love laugh]

3. Paper ballots aren't THE end-all answer. RepubLIEcons

tamper with paper ballots too—even letting ballots sit at the post office or in locked rooms, uncounted.

[usaf-vet]

4. See this below: SAFE ACT H.R.2722 -- 116th Congress (2019-2020)

SAFE Act requires that all voting machines involve “the use of an individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballot of the voter’s vote.”

Yet despite expert consensus, political activism, and availability of funding, opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate makes it unlikely that the SAFE Act or any paper ballot standard will be implemented by 2020. With no method to verify votes in the case of software or hardware failure, paperless voting machines represent a large vulnerability. Failure to act on election security risks not only a loss of trust in the next election, but in the democratic process as a whole.


https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212985919

[yellowdogintexas]

8. Our new equipment has a big suitcase built into the scanner base

that all the ballots drop into. When we close the polls, we zip it up and seal it then record the seal numbers, and it goes to the drop point with all the voting equipment, which is also sealed and recorded.

Votes are only stored on paper, and the machine used for casting the votes has no memory - each voter keys in an access code, makes his/her choices and prints the ballot. The access codes can only be used once. The next voter may be pulling up a completely different ballot since we have voting centers and you can vote anywhere in the county on election day

If we dared show up at the drop center with those seals broken or without the suitcase our asses would be in a sling.

[ElementaryPenguin]

5. That's EXACTLY why it's being considered!!

The first requirement is easy hackability.

This app will undoubtedly be the app of choice for all states with GOP governors!

[yellowdogintexas]

9. down here the county elections offices make the decisions on equpment

In order to get voting centers, we had to get a system which would allow any ballot form in the county to be displayed, self print the ballots for scanning and allow election workers to view the entire county's voter registration log.

This allows us to vote at any precinct on election day, and we are not chained to the one in our home precinct. It is very nice. Our voters love it.

No apps being used here.

[JudyM]

6. K&R.

[diva77]

7. K&R for exposure

[Kid Berwyn]

10. K&R for Truth

May be slow, but when it comes to honest elections, No. 2 Pencil and Paper work best.

[Amaryllis]

11. We have all hand marked paper ballots in Oregon. And good chain of custody.

Any vulnerability would be in the tabulators used to count the votes but that is the case with any state using paper ballot and electronic tabulators.

[Kablooie]

12. Don't be surprised in November if it's a landslide for Trump.

And all anyone can do about it is grumble about foul play.

I have very little confidence in the next election because Trump will do every illegal thing possible to win and has the whole Russian hacking complex to help him.

Also, with all these digital machines being used in the next election, (Here in Los Angeles we will be using a brand new electronic system for the first time.), it's likely to be complete debacle anyway.

And if Trump wins he will prevent any investigations so there will be no recourse.