Calif. Whistleblowers Sue Diebold

12 Jul, 2004 at 3:21pm ET Article published in Tech

Critics of electronic voting are suing Diebold under a whistleblower law, alleging that the company’s shoddy balloting equipment exposed California elections to hackers and software bugs.

California’s attorney general unsealed the lawsuit Friday. It was filed in November but sealed under a provision that keeps such actions secret until the government decides whether to join the plaintiffs. Lawmakers from Maryland to California are expressing doubts about the integrity of paperless voting terminals made by several large manufacturers, which up to 50 million Americans will use in November.

And with Al-Qaeda wanting to do something during election time, this should scare the heck out of most Americans. -KF

Source: Wired

Comments

12 Jul 2004 ~ 3:28pm Leonardo This was so predictable, for two reasons:

1) Technical consultants warned against such potential security vulnerabilities even as electronic voting was being studied after West Palm Beach's inability to understand paper ballots.

2) This very likely a test of defenses as it were, in order to launch an elections results challenge in November - if things don't go the way they are hoped in certain geographic locations.
13 Jul 2004 ~ 5:57pm Omega65 The biggest problem with these Electonic voting systems is there is no paper audit trail for most of them (or recount option). And all of us here know how ripe for fraud such as system would be.
13 Jul 2004 ~ 7:46pm Leonardo I've got a great idea that's low cost, low tech, simple to use, and has proven reliable for decades -

paper ballots!
13 Jul 2004 ~ 8:33pm Thrax Apparently the <s>retards</s> common American can't even figure those out.
13 Jul 2004 ~ 8:45pm Leonardo Hmmph - I believe the hapless, confused voters were confined to one county, in only one state. (I'd name the state, but don't want to embarrass any fellow Short-Medians from there.)
13 Jul 2004 ~ 9:44pm TheSmJ "All the nuts roll down hill..."