The Smoking Gun ! - Purposely Corrupted Diebold Voting Terminals !

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Sun, 31 Oct 2004 21:27:04 -0500

Subject:The Smoking Gun ! - Purposely Corrupted Diebold Voting Terminals !

 

 

The Smoking Gun ! - Purposely Corrupted Diebold Voting Terminals !

 

 

 

Consumer Report Part 1: Look at this -- the Diebold GEMS central

tabulator contains a stunning security hole

 

Submitted by Bev Harris on Thu, 08/26/2004 - 11:43. Investigations

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/?q=node/view/78

 

Issue: Manipulation technique found in the Diebold central tabulator --

 

1,000 of these systems are in place, and they count up to two million

votes at a time.

 

!!! --> " By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location, a second set

of votes is created. This set of votes can be changed, so that it no

longer matches the correct votes " !!!

 

The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set. It

takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single

location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate

the risks.

 

This program is not " stupidity " or sloppiness.

 

It was designed and tested over a series of a dozen version

adjustments.

 

Public officials: If you are in a county that uses GEMS 1.18.18, GEMS

1.18.19, or GEMS 1.18.23, your secretary or state may not have told you

about this. You're the one who'll be blamed if your election is tampered

with. Find out for yourself if you have this problem: Black Box Voting

will be happy to walk you through a diagnostic procedure over the phone.

E-mail Bev Harris or Andy Stephenson to set up a time to do this.

For the media: Harris and Stephenson will be in New York City on Aug.

30, 31, Sep.1, to demonstrate this built-in election tampering

 

technique.

Members of congress and Washington correspondents: Harris and Stephenson

will be in Washington D.C. on Sept. 22 to demonstrate this problem for

you.

 

Whether you vote absentee, on touch-screens, or on paper ballot (fill in

the bubble) optical scan machines, all votes are ultimately brought to

the " mother ship, " the central tabulator at the county which adds them

all up and creates the results report.

These systems are used in over 30 states and each counts up to two

million votes at once.

(Click " read more " for the rest of this section)

 

The central tabulator is far more vulnerable than the touch screen

terminals.

 

Think about it: If you were going to tamper with an election, would you

rather tamper with 4,500 individual voting machines, or with just one

machine, the central tabulator which receives votes from all the

machines? Of course, the central tabulator is the most desirable target.

Findings:

 

The GEMS central tabulator program is incorrectly designed and highly

vulnerable to fraud. Election results can be changed in a matter of

seconds. Part of the program we examined appears to be designed with

election tampering in mind.

We have also learned that election officials maintain inadequate

controls over access to the central tabulator. We need to beef up

procedures to mitigate risks.

Much of this information, originally published on July 8, 2003, has

since been corroborated by formal studies (RABA) and by Diebold's own

internal memos written by its programmers.

 

Not a single location has yet implemented the security measures needed

to mitigate the risk. Yet, it is not too late. We need to tackle this

one, folks, roll up our sleeves, and implement corrective measures.

In Nov. 2003, Black Box Voting founder

Bev Harris, and director Jim March, filed a Qui Tam lawsuit in

California citing fraudulent claims by Diebold, seeking restitution for

the taxpayer. Diebold claimed its voting system was secure. It is, in

fact, highly vulnerable to and appears to be designed for fraud.

The California Attorney General was made aware of this problem nearly a

year ago. Harris and Black Box Voting

Associate Director Andy Stephenson visited the Washington Attorney

General's office in Feb. 2004 to inform them of the problem.

!!!!--> Yet, nothing has been done to inform election officials who

are using the system, nor have appropriate security safeguards been

implemented. In fact,

Gov. Arnold Swarzenegger recently froze the funds, allocated by

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, which would have paid for increased

scrutiny of the voting system in California.

On April 21, 2004, Harris appeared before the California Voting Systems

Panel, and presented the smoking gun document showing that Diebold had

not corrected the GEMS flaws, even though it had updated and upgraded

the GEMS program.

On Aug. 8, 2004, Harris demonstrated to Howard Dean how easy it is to

change votes in GEMS, on CNBC TV.

On Aug. 11, 2004, Jim March formally requested that the Calfornia Voting

Systems Panel watch the demonstration of the double set of books in

GEMS. They were already convened, and the time for Harris was already

allotted. Though the demonstration takes only 3 minutes, the panel

refused to allow it and would not look. They did, however, meet

privately with Diebold afterwards, without informing the public or

issuing any report of what transpired.

On Aug. 18, 2004, Harris and Stephenson, together with computer security

expert Dr. Hugh Thompson, and former King County Elections Supervisor

Julie Anne Kempf, met with members of the California Voting Systems

Panel and the California Secretary of State's office to demonstrate the

double set of books. The officials declined to allow a camera crew from

60 Minutes to film or attend.

The Secretary of State's office halted the meeting, called in the

general counsel for their office, and a defense attorney from the

California Attorney General's office. They refused to allow Black Box

Voting to videotape its own demonstration. They prohibited any audiotape

and specified that no notes of the meeting could be requested in public

records requests.

The undersecretary of state, Mark Kyle, left the meeting early, and one

voting panel member, John Mott Smith, appeared to sleep through the

presentation.

On Aug. 23, 2004, CBC TV came to California and filmed the

demonstration.

On Aug 30 and 31, Harris and Stephenson will be in New York City to

demonstrate the double set of books for any public official and any TV

crews who wish to see it.

On Sept. 1, another event is planned in New York City, and on Sept. 21,

Harris and Stephenson intend to demonstrate the problem for members and

congress and the press in Washington D.C.

Diebold has known of the problem, or should have known, because it did a

cease and desist on the web site when Harris originally reported the

problem in 2003. On Aug. 11, 2004, Harris also offered to show the

problem to Marvin Singleton, Diebold's damage control expert, and to

other Diebold execs. They refused to look.

Why don't people want to look? Suppose you are formally informed that

the gas tank tends to explode on the car you are telling people to use.

If you KNOW about it, but do nothing, you are liable.

LET US HOLD DIEBOLD, AND OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS, ACCOUNTABLE.

1) Let there be no one who can say " I didn't know. "

2) Let there be no election jurisdiction using GEMS that fails to

implement all of the proper corrective procedures, this fall, to

mitigate risk.

 

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