Brad Friedman (Salon): ….. Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education …. experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.
The new findings echo long-ignored concerns about e-voting vulnerabilities ….. “This is a national security issue,” says Roger Johnston, leader of the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. “It should really be handled by the Department of Homeland Security.”
…. Almost all voters in states like Georgia, Maryland, Utah and Nevada, and the majority of voters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Texas, will vote on DREs on Election Day in 2012 … Voters in major municipalities such as Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Pittsburgh will also use DREs of the type hacked by the Argonne National Lab.
…. In what John Warner (VAT) describes as “probably the most relevant attack for vote tampering,” the intruder would allow the voter to make his or her selections but when the voter actually attempts to push the Vote Now button, which records the voter’s final selections to the system’s memory card, he says, “we will simply intercept that attempt …. change a few of the votes,” and the changed votes would then be registered in the machine…..
Full article here
Thanks Tally – this is scary as hell.
The Obama Diary 
Thank you for this, Tally & Chips!
thanks for this
Perry Aides Told Different Stories In Lawsuit
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2011/09/perry_aides_told_different_stories_in_lawsuit.php?ref=fpb
Wow, they’re in Maryland and I’m sure will be everywhere by next November.
Holy crap. This needs to be sent to the Justice Department, OFA, Attack Watch.
Update: Just tweeted this to @TheJusticeDept @AttackWatch @OFA_HQ. and told them to please investigate.
YES YES YES – AND EVERY NEWS OUTLET ON EARTH. They’re not covering this, and it should be on the FRONT PAGE OF EVERYTHING.
So let’s send this everywhere, and KEEP DOING IT.
Man. I think we’re still doing the color the dot and it gets scanned thing. It’s just so easy to screw with stuff like this. too frightening. Thanks Tally.
What I want to know is why this concern only arises when we’re approaching or leaving an election. Why is nothing ever done about this in the meantime. Congress? Where are they on this? Shouldn’t the integrity of our election be paramount, take precedence over everything else? Our voting system is a mess, every state with different methods, different hours, even parts of states with different hours and availability of polls etc. Almost every election we see some anomaly where the results don’t add up—–Ohio ’04, for instance—–and articles are written in respectable publications and there’s a little noise for awhile——-and then it all goes away—–until the next election rolls around. Unbelievable.
The GOP know this is how they steal it. That’s why they own the companies that make the machines.
Hacks work both ways you know. Any election could be challenged by the losing team. Paper trails people, paper trails.
Paper trails won’t matter if it’s not close enough.
Canada votes on PAPER. We can too.
We need to get democrats registered to vote by absentee ballots in these states and make a copy of their ballots. The GOTP want to steal this election.
I don’t trust absentee ballots either—-because of personal experience and other incidents I’ve read about. I think they’re too easily tossed aside and in some cases never counted unless there is a close election—-or, if there is an unethical person in charge like the crazy lady in Wi., never counted at all.
THANK YOU FOR SPREADING THE WORD
This is where all hands have to be on deck. In most places, the Voter Registration Office has official control of the election machines and is responsible for setting them up. Make a special effort to meet these people in your country. Express your concerns. We got a tour of the place where the machines were kept, told how they were programmed and what the safeguards were. Next make sure that you ID your voters so you have a pretty good idea of who is going to vote on election. Train poll watchers carefully, so they have your list of voters so they can keep tabs as people come to vote. The last shift of poll watchers stays for the count–the most important job of of the day. Keep your tally at hand so you can spot discrepancies AND insist that the absentees be counted and noted in your presence. Have a trained legal team on call so that you can dial for help is you detect a problem. Every single polling place needs poll watchers on shifts, watching like hawks. It doesn’t prevent all fraud, but it puts everyone on notice that you’re watching and reporting. If you’ve built a good working relationship with your voter registration people (even in a red county courtesy counts) you often rely on them to enforce rules. It’s all hard work and a lot of planning, but I know OFA is on the job and every one of us can play a BIG role in this.
Yes, all hands need to be on deck, but not in meeting the people, but getting RID OF THE MACHINES.
Watch the video. This can be done by remote, you don’t need to have any computer code knowledge, and doesn’t leave a trace.
An 8th grader could do it.
Thankfully, we have mail-in ballots now, out here in WA. It is pretty much hacker proof!
This should be standard nationwide.
Let’s get on this. Let’s bug justice. Someone want to start a petition at Whitehouse.gov???
We in Ohio as well as Florida know about the infamous Diebold voting machines. We would not have had a second Bush term if it weren’t for them and their Karl Rove and Dick Armey connection. We were up in the exit polls in Ohio election night 2004 and all the sudden miraculouosly slightly after midnight as precincts continued to come in all that change. We at the Dem headquarters downtown knew that it had been rigged. Devastation was and understatement for what we felt. Who knows what history would be like had Kerry been in the Whitehouse. Maybe we would never have had a PBO as CIC. I hope the Obama campaign and andministration is aware of this BIG THREAT.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS!!!!