Devastating hack proven - Leon County, FL dumps Diebold

[Thom Little]

Due to contractual non-performance and security design issues, Leon County (Florida) supervisor of elections Ion Sancho has announced that he will never again use Diebold in an election. He has requested funds to replace the Diebold system from the county. On Tuesday, the most serious “hack” demonstration to date took place in Leon County. The Diebold machines succumbed quickly to alteration of the votes. This comes on the heels of the resignation of Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell, and 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 scheduled before Christmas in the state of California.

Finnish security expert Harri Hursti, together with Black Box Voting, demonstrated that Diebold made misrepresentations to Secretaries of State across the nation when Diebold claimed votes could not be changed on the “memory card” (the credit-card-sized ballot box used by computerized voting machines).

A test election was run in Leon County on Tuesday with a total of eight ballots. Six ballots voted "no" on a ballot question as to whether Diebold voting machines can be hacked or not. Two ballots, cast by Dr. Herbert Thompson and by Harri Hursti voted "yes" indicating a belief that the Diebold 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 "zero report" was run indicating zero votes on the memory card. In fact, however, Hursti had pre-loaded the memory card with plus and minus votes.

.......

Correct results should have been: Yes: 2 ; No: 6

However, just as Hursti had planned, the results tape read: Yes: 7 ; No: 1



http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/15595.html

[Wilms]

1. Totally unverified at this time.

Would be great news. I hope it's true. But so far, the only independent report is the one you cite.

And BBV...

[kansasblue]

13. WHAT? Miami Herald had it.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13410061.htm

[Wilms]

14. Now, yes.

I posted that comment prior to the Miami Herald's story being posted.

I guess you missed the pie-fight. :(

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=405005&mesg_id=405005

[neoteric lefty]

2. can't wait to see if TD picks it up

tommorrow and maybe MSM by Friday... one can only hope.

[LosinIt]

3. TD??

Tom Dooley? The Daily?

[neoteric lefty]

4. Tallahassee Democrat, a local paper

I've heard that they have been pretty good about keeping this stuff in the public eye.

[tallahasseedem]

9. Not now....

They have a new fundy editor.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

5. I live in Tallahassee

and haven't seen anything about this yet. Are we sure this is right?

[denese]

6. it appears the same story..

Is being reported on my local stations (Orlando) web page


http://www.wftv.com/news/5541739/detail.html

Not sure if the link will work, never added a link here before.

[mzmolly]

7. If true, we need to get this kind of information to our reps so they can

use it as "evidence" that electronic voting is not reliable.

Thanks for posting.

[AllyCat]

8. Interesting statement by Diebold in article:

--snip--

But after BlackBox and Sancho announced the results, the Ohio-based company's senior lawyer, Michael Lindroos, sent a letter to Sancho, the county and the state that questioned the results and called the test "a very foolish and irresponsible act" that may have violated licensing agreements.

Sancho also criticized the Florida Secretary of State's Office, which approves voting machines for use in the state, for not catching the alleged problems with Diebold's system.

--snip--

Okay so licensing agreements take precedence over the right to a fair vote? Lindroos seems to think that knowingly selling an inferior and defective product to count something as important as votes is the State's fault, not theirs for misrepresenting the capabilities of what they were selling. Shouldn't that be a lawsuit against Diebold for killing democracy?

[ucmike]

10. exactly what i thought

diebold really says, "contractually, you aren't allowed to expose us"

makes me think that blue ink on a finger may not be such a bad idea.

[hunter]

11. It's not a security flaw, it's a feature.

I'm really beginning to believe this. There was a market demand for insecure electronic voting machines, so that's what Diebold sold.

"Check out the code, it's on the web, it was an accident, we are bumbling idiots, wink, wink."

On bad days I believe our government is being run by very sinister people who are not so breathtakingly incompetent as they appear to be.

[radio4progressives]

12. Kicked and Recommeneded.. thank you!

:kick: :thumbsup: