

Install PAC-MAN on Sequoia voting machine w/o breaking tamper-evident seals - finin
http://www.cse.umich.edu/~jhalderm/pacman/

======
seldo
It is one of the curious facts of modern culture that the people who love
technology the most also seem to be the most opposed to electronic voting.

I think it's because the people who most understand how computers work also
understand that no data can be considered trustworthy if somebody else has
been in possession of the hardware. Yet governments continue to trust the
impossible promises of the people who make voting machines that their machines
are secure, despite a continuous stream of demonstrations to the contrary,
both intentional and accidental.

~~~
dandelany
I don't know that we're opposed to it in theory, it's just that every single
implementation thus far has been terrifically bad. Making the code open source
would go a long way, I think, as would establishing open working groups to
establish security standards. I may be an optimist, but I do believe that
theoretically (at least information-theoretically[1]), it can be done well.

[1] [http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Information-
theoreticall...](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Information-
theoretically+secure+voting&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart)

~~~
yummyfajitas
It's also fairly easy for us techies to grasp the hacking of computer systems.
But we often forget how insecure and error prone paper systems can also be:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJfj9ySYg0Q>

Massive voter fraud could be happening every election - it's pretty easy to
vote fraudulently and there is almost no way to find out after the fact (I've
done it unintentionally). For whatever reason, we are insanely afraid of
hackers pushing an election over the edge, and yet we don't even ask for photo
ID at the voting booth.

~~~
aristus
We're more concerned about electronic voting because it lowers the effort and
manpower needed to defraud _immensely_.

~~~
jacquesm
And more likely, in a close election the election can be stolen by a minimal
change, which will probably go undetected.

------
jacquesm
"We received the machine with the original tamper-evident seals intact. The
software can be replaced without breaking any of these seals, simply by
removing screws and opening the case."

Ouch.

Incompetence doesn't even begin to describe it. Or is this by design?

~~~
limist
"What's inside the AVC Edge? It has a 486 SLE processor and 32 MB of
RAM—similar specs to a 20-year-old PC. The election software is stored on an
internal CompactFlash memory card. Modifying it is as simple as removing the
card and inserting it into a PC."

Seems to be a history of dubious competence for this machine and company:

[http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vVOdcOpBZ_EJ:w...](http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vVOdcOpBZ_EJ:w2.eff.org/Activism/E-voting/20040818_sequoia_avc_edge_v0.8.pdf+sequoia+avc+edge&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjhaOTNsoZUzCrBrCwzpVGX2LU5gtwvjm1wWeCnLdAgglQ8UhhRlyTAQHBGuvk39zoOQzDx1oShg6biPbFhYSSg5Q-O9kyEdIrvsrNw7yKORyq1eez_0rINvKuvvJHsIPK3wmYY&sig=AHIEtbSRJi1WRVDG0rlwkgZx2BFX_DfRFA)

<http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sequoia_AVC_Edge>

~~~
jacquesm
I'm not too shocked by the use of the processor, that may very well have
something to do with reliability. You'd be surprised how demanding industry is
in this respect, and it's not rare at all to find what you'd class as
'ancient' hardware when it comes to doing jobs where you have to make the
results reliable. Not saying that was the case here, but it could be, also I'm
imagining these boards might be run from a battery backed-up power supply so
they may want to have them consume as little power as possible (that's a guess
though, but I can imagine that if your election is in an area where there is a
power failure you don't want to lose the results).

Compare for instance with avionics and stuff on space flights. If crashing is
not an option the rules about hardware change dramatically. It's a pity the
article does not say whether the ram was ECC ram or not, that would be a hint
that this is not just a way to be 'cheap'.

------
tvon
I suspect the only way to get the public's attention on voting machine
security would be for a group (Anonymous?) to hack a major election in favor
of a joke write-in candidate (Mickey Mouse, "None of the Above", Bill Murray).

~~~
JacobAldridge
Definitely 'None of the Above' - I ran for student union president on a None
of the Above ticket.

The irony was lost (magnified?) when I drew top of the ballot paper, but
ultimately my preferences (was a preferential style not first-past-the-post
ballot) tipped the victorious president over in a cliffhanger election.

------
Derferman
The Open Voting Consortium is working on an open-source solution that uses
everyday PCs and printers instead of these ridiculously expensive voting
machines. Their solution[1] is actually paper-based, allowing for increased
accountability and transparency. The source is available here[2] although the
project hasn't seen activity in quite some time, so I am not sure of the
status of the code base.

[1]: <http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/our_solution> [2]:
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/evm2003/>

------
indrax
Now make it so you have to eat the ghost labeled as the candidate you want to
vote for, and it records the vote.

I might actually go to the polls.

~~~
reitzensteinm
Alternatively, a 1 minute quiz on the constitution and/or your countries
system of governance. Get all the answers right and you can vote!

~~~
russell
Half a century ago, literacy tests and trick questions were widely used to
keep blacks from voting. That's why it's illegal to do so now.

~~~
JoachimSchipper
Nowadays, the US repeals voting rights from those who have committed a felony,
have a similar name to someone who's committed a felony, or live in the same
neighborhood as people who conflict felonies. And who "just happen" to be
black.

Civilization has advanced - this is no longer widely accepted - but that
doesn't mean it doesn't happen in, say, Florida.

~~~
harto
> have a similar name to someone who's committed a felony

Really? How is that justified?

~~~
JoachimSchipper
To the best of my knowledge, not at all.

See e.g. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Central_Voter_File> for
details.

------
jderick
Support verified voting if you are concerned about electronic voting:
<http://verifiedvoting.org/>

------
kmfrk
I can't imagine the horror of battling lobby groups and corporate interests to
fix this on a federal scale.

------
Sapslzr
well, it works perfectly if what you want is steal an election...

