As I wrote on Sunday, when your Ford Pinto blows up in the course of regular use — such as when it gets hit from behind in a rear-end collision — you don’t blame the driver for the disaster.
Diebold’s response in general (along with the other voting machine companies and the elections officials who are now their “unofficial” representatives in the media) to the mountain of problems we’ve seen with electronic voting machines at the polls so far this year has been to blame the poll workers. Indeed, Diebold’s official response to the catastrophic findings by Princeton University that Diebold touch-screen systems can be hacked with an election-stealing virus implanted undetectably in a minute’s time — one that can then spread to every machine in the system — has been to say that if poll workers and elections officials do their job properly, that could never happen. That’s simply nonsense and they know it.
Computerworld’s blogger, Martin McKeay, posted a brilliant reponse to Diebold’s nonsense the other day. His on-the-money reply ends this way:
Here’s my final comment, and it’s directed right at [Diebold Election Systems, Inc., President] Dave Byrd: Quit attacking the critics of your product and attack the basic problems your product has continually displayed. Rather than attacking researchers and running off election officials who want your products verified, take the time to address the fundamental problems with your products. Give us a paper trail, quit using WindowsCE, allow verification of your software. Part of being in a democratic society is that the voting process needs to be transparent to anyone who’s willing to take the time to look. Until Diebold is willing to accept thattransparency , you’re going to keep getting hammered by your critics and your products will never be acceptable. It’s only going to get worse unless Diebold changes their tactics.
Too bad the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not want to open an investigation on Electronic Voting.
It’s kinda like they don’t give a crap about SECURITY!
As long as the manufacturers are privately-held, I recommend we petition our lawmakers to outlaw their use.
Granted, public corporations aren’t much more accountable, but at least there, legal mechanisms are in place to force accountability. These private firms are something of a black hole, and this must change.
It might be a good idea to have lawyers ready for election day, to file motions or papers immediately anybody hears of irregularities. Also, See about getting News outlets (in the MSM….we bloggers are pretty plugged-in, we need to plug in the rest of the country) to follow along, so that this gets maximum coverage. Take the fight to them, and stay in their face until you are heard.
After all this time studying the way Diebold does business, I don’t have any problem telling Diebold to STOP MAKING MACHINES THAT ARE DESIGNED TO STEAL VOTES!
This fact doesn’t need to be proven in court any more then it has to be proven in court that water is wet!
Diebold has to give us a reason to think their machines aren’t designed to steal votes or give our money back!
For security – DIEBOLD is a joke,..
Diebold locked access panels on their EVM machines are easily defeated. It has been found many common keys such as a key to a lock on a four draw filing cabinet will open/unlock the Diebold access panel door for the memory card,.. which renders the machine no longer secure from malicious tampering.
Article of easy key access to Diebold e-voting
machines,..
http://it.slashdot.org/it/06/09/18/178218.shtml