Review of Electronic Voting Systems

http://sos.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/ttbr/red_overview.pdf

When you know that the basic rights of citizens could be easily violated (or hijacked) you MUST demand secure and inviolate protection of such rights.
It's your duty to vote - and your right that the vote be counted. Unfortunately, when accurate tallying of the votes is under threat, there's little you can do but suffer while the bureaucrazy plods along, trying to figure out what's going on.

To that end, the report listed in the link above is a true eyeopener. We all know about how Diebold systems were hijacked by a team of researchers just a few years ago (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0307/S00198.htm). In a sickening reprise, research teams organized by the California Secretary of State were able to get into multiple machines -- sold by Diebold, Hart InterCivic, and Sequoia.

The methods appear to be very similar -- simply modify the firmware to execute all sorts of illegal commands. The physical security of the machines were lacking: the teams managed to push all kinds of 'protected' buttons without leaving a trace.
The more important (if you can say that) software security was lacking as well. Compromising the firmware, the boot loader, and arranging results to be different depending upon the mode of operation of the device -- all these suffered.

I'll leave the actual study for you to peruse and chuckle at (sadly), but I really think it's time our govt started taking the idea of Security more seriously. Trusting private vendors is simply insane - especially trusting them with the most critical process in a democracy. We have so many gifted scientists at the NSA, FBI, CIA, and many other organizations without acronyms or addresses - get them to do it, under the supervision of a bipartisan technical committee (no business folks need apply).

Quite simple - but I'm sure that can't be easily accomplished mainly because the govt is beholden to industry. I'm not even going to get into how to fix this security-wise (although I have a few thoughts), but do want to say that if the USA wants to be taken seriously as not just a superpower, but more importantly, as a democrazy (!), it needs to revamp its entire election process - from scratch.

Be safe!