Election officials spooked by tampering in a test last week of
Diebold optical-scan voting machines should be equally wary of
optical-scan equipment produced by other manufacturers, according to a
computer scientist who conducted the test.
Election officials in Florida's Leon County, where the test
occurred, promptly announced plans to drop Diebold machines in favor of
optical-scan machines made by Election Systems & Software, or
ES&S. But Hugh Thompson, an adjunct computer science professor at
the Florida Institute of Technology who helped devise last week's test,
believes other systems could also be vulnerable.
"Looking at these systems doesn't send off signals that ... if we
just get rid of Diebold and go to another vendor we'll be safe,"
Thompson said. "We know the Diebold machines are vulnerable. As for
ES&S, we don't know that they're bad but we don't know that they're
(good) either."
Thompson and Harri Hursti, a Finnish computer scientist, were able
to change votes on the Diebold machine without leaving a trace. Hursti
conducted the same test for the California secretary of state's office
Tuesday. The office did not return several calls for comment.
Information about the vulnerability comes as states face deadlines
to qualify for federal funding to replace punch-card and lever machines
with new touch-screen or optical-scan machines. In order to get
funding, states must have new machines in place by their first federal
election after Jan. 1, 2006.
Optical-scan machines have become the preferred choice of many
election officials due to the controversy over touch-screen voting
machines, many of which do not produce a paper trail. Optical-scan
machines use a paper ballot on which voters mark selections with a pen
before officials scan them into a machine. The paper serves as a backup
if the machine fails or officials need to recount votes.
The hack Thompson and Hursti performed involves a memory card that's
inserted in the Diebold machines to record votes as officials scan
ballots. According to Thompson, data on the cards isn't encrypted or
secured with passwords. Anyone with programming skills and access to
the cards -- such as a county elections technical administrator, a
savvy poll worker or a voting company employee -- can alter the data
using a laptop and card reader.
To test the machines, Thompson and Hursti conducted a mock election
on systems loaded with a rigged memory card. The election consisted of
eight ballots asking voters to decide, yes or no, if the Diebold
optical-scan machine could be hacked.
Six people voted "no" and two voted "yes." But after scanning the ballots, the total showed one "no" vote and seven "yes" votes.
Diebold did not return several calls for comment.
Thompson said in a real race between candidates someone could
pre-load 50 votes for Candidate A and minus 50 votes for Candidate B,
for example. Candidate B would need to receive 100 votes before
equaling Candidate A's level at the start of the race. The total number
of votes on the machine would equal the number of voters, so election
officials wouldn't become suspicious.
"It's self-destroying evidence," he said. "Once ... the machine gets
past zero and starts counting forward for Candidate B, there's no
record that at one point there were negative votes for Candidate B."
Thompson said a second vulnerability in the cards makes it easy to
program the voting machine so that it thinks the card is blank at the
start of the race. This is important because before voting begins on
Election Day, poll workers print a report of vote totals from each
machine to show voters that the machines contain no votes.
"The logic to print that zero report is contained on the memory card
itself," Thompson said. "So all you do is alter that code ... to always
print out a zero report (in the morning)."
David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory and chair of California's Voting Systems Technical
Assessment and Advisory Board, said that programming software on a
removable memory card raises grave concerns.
"The instant anyone with security sensibility hears this, red flags
and clanging alarms happen," Jefferson said. "Because this software
that is inserted from the memory module is not part of the code base
that goes through the qualification process, so it's code that escapes
federal scrutiny."
The vote manipulation could conceivably be caught in states where
election laws require officials to conduct a 1 percent manual recount
to compare digital votes against paper ballots. Parallel monitoring, in
which officials pull out random machines for testing on Election Day,
might also catch vote manipulation.
But Thompson says machines could be programmed to recognize when
they're being tested so as not to change votes during that time. And a
manual recount that only examines 1 percent of machines might not be
broad enough.
"The question is, if you have altered a memory card in just one of
the polling places or even just on one machine, what are the chances
that the machine would fall under that 1 percent?" Thompson said.
"That's kind of scary."
Considering the responses of Bill Kristol, the Wall Street Journal, and others
to President Bush’s affirmation of warrantless domestic spying by the
NSA, perhaps it’s time to separate the wheat from the chaff in this
America. The Rude Pundit believes a new "contract" of sorts is needed
between the government and the American people. Howzabout this:
"I
(the undersigned) believe President George W. Bush when he says that
the United States of America is fighting a 'new kind of enemy' that
requires 'new thinking' about how to wage war. Therefore, as a loyal
citizen of President Bush’s United States, my signature below indicates
my agreement to the following:
"1. I believe wholeheartedly in
the Patriot Act as initially passed by Congress in 2001, as well as the
provisions of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act. Therefore, I grant
the FBI access to:
"a. my library records, so it may determine if I am reading material that might designate me an enemy of the nation;
"b.
my financial records, including credit reports, so it may determine if
I am contributing monetarily to any governmentally proscribed
activities or organizations;
"c. my medical records, so it may
determine if my prescriptions, injuries, or other conditions are
indicative of terrorist activity on my part;
"d. any and all
other personal records including, but not limited to, my store
purchases, my school records, my web browsing history, and anything
else determined as a 'tangible thing' necessary to engage in a secret
investigation of me.
"I agree that I do not need to be notified
if my records have come under scrutiny by the FBI, and, furthermore, I
agree that no warrant is needed for the FBI to engage in this
examination of my personal records. Additionally, I agree that the FBI
should be allowed to monitor any groups it believes may be linked to
what it determines to be terrorist activity.
"2. I believe that
the President of the United States has the power to mitigate any and
all laws passed by the Congress and that he has such power granted to
him by his status as Commander-in-Chief in the Constitution as well as
the 2001 Authorization of Military Force, passed by the Congress, which
states that the President can use 'all necessary and appropriate force'
in prosecution of the war. Therefore, I grant the United States
government the following powers:
"a. that the National Security
Agency, under the direction of the President, may tap my phone lines
and intercept my e-mail without warrant or FISA oversight;
"b.
that the President may hold me or other detainees without access to the
legal system for a period of time determined by the President or his
agents;
"c. that the President may authorize physical force
against me or other individual detainees in order to gain intelligence
and that he may define whether such physical force may be called
'torture':
"d. that the President may set aside any and all laws
he sees as hindering the gathering of intelligence and prevention of
terrorist acts for a period as time determined by the President,
including, but not limited to, rights to political protest.
"I
agree that the Judicial and Legislative branch should be allowed no
oversight of these activities, and that such oversight merely emboldens
the terrorists. I also agree that virtually all of these activities may
be conducted in complete secrecy and that revelation of these
activities amount to treasonous behavior on the part of those who
reveal these activities to the press and the citizenry.
"3.
Finally, this document is my statement that I believe the President of
the United States and the entire executive branch, as well as all
departments and agencies involved, as well as all of its personnel,
will treat these powers I have granted them with utmost respect. I
believe that these powers will not be abused, nor will any of the
information I have given them permission to examine be misinterpreted.
However, should such abuse or misinterpretation occur, I agree that
such actions are mere errors and no one should be subject to
investigation, arrest, or employment action as a result.
"My consent freely given, "(Your signature)"
C'mon,
Michelle Malkin, Byron York, John Hinderaker, and all the rest of you
good Bush lovers. Sign on up. Send it in to the White House. Let 'em
know that you have nothing to hide. Or nothing you don't care about
sharing.
Earlier Resignations on Principle --Lest We Forget
These fed-up Bush officials so disagreed with administration policies
that they preferred the uncertainty of the unemployment line to toeing
the party line.
Other Resignations on Principle Ariana Huffington
published these letters of resignation from the Bush House on principle
(along with her interpretations, omitted here), back in 2003. It's
clearly time for Ariana to update this ever-growing file again,
starting with Judge Robertson.
Mike Dombeck, Forest Service chief, resigned March 27, 2001, after four years on the job.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: "It was made clear in no
uncertain terms that the administration wants to take the Forest
Service in another direction ..."
John Brown, Ph.D., was a Foreign Service officer for nearly 25 years,
having served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev and Belgrade. He resigned
March 10, 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: "I
cannot in good conscience support President Bush's war plans against
Iraq. The president has failed to: explain clearly why our brave men
and women in uniform should be ready to sacrifice their lives in a war
on Iraq at this time; to lay out the full ramifications of this war,
including the extent of innocent civilian casualties; to specify the
economic costs of the war for the ordinary Americans; to clarify how
the war would help rid the world of terror; to take international
public opinion against the war into serious consideration."
Bruce Boler, an EPA state water quality specialist, resigned from his
post Oct. 23, 2003, because his bosses at the EPA accepted the findings
of a controversial study that concluded that Florida wetlands discharge
more pollutants than they absorb.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: "... ultimately the politics
of southwestern Florida have proven stronger than the science ..."
Isam al-Khafaji, a member of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Counsel, resigned July 9, 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: "I feared my role with the
reconstruction council was sliding from what I had originally
envisioned -- working with allies in a democratic fashion -- to
collaborating with occupying forces."
Eric Schaeffer, director of the EPA Office of Regulatory Enforcement, resigned Feb. 27, 2002.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: "I can not leave without
sharing my frustration about the fate of our enforcement actions
against power companies that have violated the Clean Air Act ... We are
fighting a White House that seems determined to weaken rules we are
trying to enforce."
John Brady Kiesling, a 20-year veteran of the Foreign Service, whose
last job was that of political counselor, U.S. Embassy, Athens,
resigned on Feb. 27, 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: "Until this administration it
had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my
president, I was also upholding the interests of the American people. I
believe it no more. I am resigning because I have tried and failed to
reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current
administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is
ultimately self-correcting."
Karen Kwiatkowski, office of the undersecretary of defense, Near East Bureau, resigned on July 1, 2003.
What she wrote in her resignation letter: "While working from May 2002
through February 2003 in the office of the Undersecretary of Defense
for Policy, Near East South Asian and Special Plans in the Pentagon, I
observed the environment in which decisions about post war Iraq were
made ... What
I saw was aberrant, pervasive, and contrary to good order and
discipline ... If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of
'intelligence' found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post
Hussein occupation has been distinguished by confusion and false steps,
one need look no further than the process inside the office of the
Secretary of Defense."
...I remember the lump I felt in my throat back in 1973 when Elliot
Richardson resigned his Cabinet post rather than acquiesce to Richard
Nixon's demand that he fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox.
...As Richardson told Nixon: 'Mr. President, it would appear that we have a different perception of the public interest.'
'Girls Gone Wild' Creator Probed About Police Record
The creator of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series was barraged with
pointed questions in court this morning designed to counter his claims
that he was the victim of robbery, kidnapping and extortion at his
Bel-Air mansion last year.
Joe Francis, 32, who made a fortune persuading young women to bare
their breasts for the camera, testified that an armed intruder stole
cash and possessions and then forced him to make a humiliating,
half-naked video.
Francis identified his assailant as Darnell Riley, 28, who is accused
of six felony counts of burglary, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping and
attempted extortion.
In Los Angeles County Superior Court today, Riley's lawyer fired back at Francis, grilling him on his own police record.
Defense attorney Ronald Richards asked Francis about a theft arrest in
North Carolina, and a case pending in Florida alleging that he filmed
minors for one of his videotapes and was charged with racketeering,
prostitution, obscenity, child pornography and possession of an illegal
drug.
"Is it true you have a 47-count indictment against you in Florida?" asked defense attorney Ronald Richards.
"I cannot answer any questions about this case, per advice of counsel," Francis answered.
Francis declined to answer half a dozen times more, citing his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment.
Under questioning by Richards, Francis acknowledged in the past, he had
accused four other people of extortion. But he said those cases, about
which no details were available, were separate from today's charges.
"Nobody else broke into my house and put a gun to my head," Francis testified.
Francis testified that after he returned home from a night of partying
Jan. 22, 2004, Riley broke in, pulled a gun on him and videotaped him,
seminude, making sexually humiliating comments about himself. He then
threatened to distribute the video unless Francis paid him $300,000 to
$500,000.
Riley has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His preliminary hearing is expected to end today
Police were tipped to the case by tabloid magnate and socialite Paris
Hilton, Francis' former girlfriend, who heard discussion of the alleged
plot at a party.
Over prosecutor Hoon Chun's objections, Los
Angeles County Superior Court Judge Bernard F. Kemper on Monday allowed
the media to film portions of the partially obscured video when it was
presented in court, but banned broadcasters from televising Francis'
testimony.
Francis said Riley took his watch, $1,100 in cash
and his cellphone but demanded more. "He said, 'I need $100,000 in cash
right now or you're going to die,'" Francis testified.
Francis was unapologetic this afternoon following his testimony.
"Even if you think I'm a bad guy cause I do 'Girls gone Wild', it
didn't give him (Riley) the right too break into my home and rob me and
threaten me," Francis told reporters outside the courtroom.
"I don't want attention from this in my life," Francis said. "To relive this is even more painful."
Election officials spooked by tampering in a test last week of
Diebold optical-scan voting machines should be equally wary of
optical-scan equipment produced by other manufacturers, according to a
computer scientist who conducted the test.
The creator of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series was barraged with
pointed questions in court this morning designed to counter his claims
that he was the victim of robbery, kidnapping and extortion at his
Bel-Air mansion last year.
