This issue came up some time ago and seems like it hasn't been brought up here yet, so here goes.
You can read the whole story from
BlackBoxVoting.org
Diebold optical scan voting machines use a weird design where a memory card inserted into the machine contains the program the machine then runs - and
there seems to be no safeguards against tampering.
With an altered memory card it is possible to alter votes without any error messages being given. It is also possible to 'preload' the cards with
votes, while maintaining the total vote count as being accurate, again without any error messages.
These alterations are impossible to detect with the current safeguards in place - only a hand count will show the correct result.
This hack demonstrates that the voting system is in violation of current standards and could very well be fraudulently certified. The final report is
due to be released on tuesday 5th of July. I'll receive a copy when it's released and can copy it here if needed.
Now the $1M question: How does this impact the future elections which might still be counted with those machines? Will the general public believe the
results, even if no one has tampered with them? Do they have a reason to doubt the vote counts, even if they aren't conspiracy buffs?
Having the last few US presidential elections in mind, I wouldn't find it very surprising if voters would lose interest in voting because they
couldn't be certain that the votes actually were cast as intended. What would that do to the turnout of voters? And if the turnout of voters would
drop significantly below 50% of all who are (in theory) eligible for voting, could the result still be called democratic and would it represent the
actual will of the citizens?
Please note that the actual methods how the system was hacked are not in the scope of this discussion. I don't want to stand in violation of the T&C.
