Election Hacked, Drunken Robot Elected to School Board - e-voting systems decades away from security

Election hacked, drunken robot elected to school board
Experts warn e-voting systems decades away from security
(theregister.co.uk)

RSA 2012 Security experts have warned that electronic voting systems are decades away from being secure, and to prove it a team from the University of Michigan successfully got the foul-mouthed, drunken Futurama robot Bender elected to head of a school board.

In 2010 the Washington DC election board announced it had set up an e-voting system for absentee ballots and was planning to use it in an election. However, to test the system, it invited the security community and members of the public to try and hack it three weeks before the election.

[...]

It will be decades before we have the technology to vote securely, Jefferson said, if indeed it is even possible. At stake is democracy itself, but politicians don't seem to understand the problems of electronic voting, and both Jefferson and Halderman expressed fears for the future if current systems become more popular.

Another source:
Hackers Elect Futurama’s Bender to the Washington DC School Board (pcworld.com)

Still think election fraud isn't happening, courtesy of our e-voting systems in the hands of our powerful elite?

Now imagine that instead of hackers we have a states attorney general working with his IT guru to subvert the election (as happened in Ohio in 2004), or you have election results being tabulated by a foreign corporation behind closed doors (the 2012 primaries). Even if the holders of the election are honest, these e-voting systems offer little resistance to outsiders intent on undermining it.

Hacked DC School Board E-Voting Elects Bender President (gizmodo.com)

T]he team found vulnerabilities in the system controlling the server farm's security camera's, which allowed them to time attacks when nobody was around to notice the extra activity. Best of all, the team found a PDF containing authentication codes for every DC voter—you know, the ones voters use to prevent electoral fraud and prove their identities.

With this data, the team was able to change every ballot to a vote, not for any of the actual candidates, but a write-in for a fictional IT entity with Bender edging out Skynet in his political debut. Their control was so complete that even if new ballots were generated, they too would vote Bender.

One very good reason why I feel it's pointless to vote anymore. Someone will electronicly vote for me either way, making my vote count as much as our voices are heard...

Sad to know that if there was a legit voting system out there, Paul would probably win. I seriously dont see this happening.

The alternative to all of this BS is to simply not vote... On a MASS scale! Yet, that wont happen either. Guess it's time to put my head between my legs and ... embrace for whatever they want to come.

Really? What do people have against Bender? He gets the best cigars!

Pretty sad that people are so lazy that they just can't take the time to count the votes! Who cares if it takes an extra day as long as we get it right?

I tired not to get involved in the whole "Ron paul didn't win because of Hax!" because I like to think that I'm a humble loser and people simply weren't voting for Dr.Paul. However with them losing ballots left and right and this turning up?

Anyways Bender/Fry 2012.