Union County's Sequoia voting machines hackable

Beating NJ to the punch, California has thrown the spotlight on the Sequoia voting machines which are used in Plainfield and throughout Union County.

Fearing that the machines can be hacked ''with little chance of detection and with dire consequences," thus allowing results to be altered, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has established a series of requirements she wants in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process.

Her action comes less than two weeks after the NJIT team assigned to examine New Jersey's electronic voting machines reported that it found 33 flaws in three printer models being considered by the State. (Links to reports and Attorney General's determination at end of story.)

New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram on Friday announced she is withholding certification on the paper-trail upgrades to the state's voting machines until the 33 flaws are addressed. [More here.]

Secretary of State Bowen has proposed a series of security safeguards that seem to me to be well thought out and would greatly reduce the chances of tampering.

It is significant that the Sequoia spokesperson in reports of both the California and New Jersey processes complains that the results were 'taken out of context,' and 'reflected unrealistic, worst-case scenarios.'

One of the problems here is that no MSM news source is monitoring these state-by-state reviews in a larger framework.

Bowen's security requirements, as reported by the LA Times include--

• Reinstalling the software before the Feb. 5. election to ensure it has not already been tampered with;
• Placing special seals at vulnerable parts of the machines to reveal tampering;
• Securing each machine at the close of each day of early voting;
• Assigning a specific election monitor to safeguard each machine; and
• Conducting a complete manual count of all votes cast.

The New York Times additionally reports Bowen is requiring --

[the] banning [of] all modem or wireless connections to the machines to prevent them from being linked to an outside computer or the Internet.

While efforts to ensure the security of the voting process from a technical standpoint are laudable, recent experience in Ohio -- where votes disappeared even after court orders they be retained for examination -- shows us that political operatives at work in the election machinery can wreak great havoc.

As Brad's Blog reminds us, it was Joe Stalin who said, "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." You don't have to be as cynical as Uncle Joe to get the point.

---

More information --

• [Breaking] Home News: "AG withholds OK for voting machines with paper backup"
• Star-Ledger: "N.J. balks on printers for voting machines"
  
• Los Angeles Times: "State decides to secure electronic voting machines" -- Archived here.
• New York Times: "California Restricts Voting Machines" -- Archived here.
• Star-Ledger (archived): "Study: 2008 election paper trail unreliable"
• NJ Division of Elections: "Website" | "NJIT Reports" (PDF) | "AG denies certification"
• Voter Resources: "Protect Our Votes" | "The Brad Blog" | "Election Transparency Project" | "Election Protection" | "Voter Protection Resources"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/