Democracy In Danger -- Computerized Elections
and Institutionalized Vote-Fraud
by Lee Goldberg
Whether it's selecting the local dog catcher, approving the regional school budget, or selecting our President, I've always loved voting. I've missed a couple of primary votes over the last decade, due to last-minute travel or other disaster, but never a major election.
Most of the places I've lived use those old-fashioned mechanical rigs, the huge gray hulks with the retractable curtains that appear on the local schools' gym floors a couple of times a year. Like my father did with me I now take Anwyn, my daughter, in the booth and hold her up to let her flip switch that closes the curtains. I then direct her to toggle the substantial-feeling levers that select my chosen candidates and vote up or down on the budgets, referendums, and other issues of the day. It feels like the conclusion of a sacrament each time she yanks the final lever, flips the curtain switch to "open", and with a familiar whirring hum, the curtains part while my admonitions to our leaders are deposited deep within the bowels of the machine. On the way out we always stop to thank the small cluster of retired volunteers who collect my signature, issue the voting tickets, and act as hunched-over guardians for our small corner of this democracy. Anwyn usually comes away with a doughnut or a cookie.
I've invested a great deal of faith in those old gray machines, most of which date back to when my father was holding me up to pull the levers. While I'm often on the losing side of the ballots I take great comfort in having participated in the process and, because of this, can usually abide with results that don't go my way. Besides, I figure that unless I vote I don't get the right to complain.
But now I'm hearing some disturbing news that those machines may be replaced with computerized equipment. And while I'll miss the familiar sights and sounds of those aging shrines to democracy, I'm most disturbed at the possibility that we are replacing an archaic, but reasonably secure system, with one that invites all manner of fraud and abuse.
I had not really given the matter much thought until a friend passed me the URL to a web site for the book Black Box Voting -- Ballot-tampering in the 21st century. I've spent a couple of hours exploring the site, and its related links, and have come to the conclusion that the author's allegations that most, or all, of the recently-developed computer-based voting systems can be easily, and undetectably tampered with may well be true. Worse yet, there appears to be a deliberate effort to ignore the fact that elections using these machines can be hacked using relatively simple methods.
The site contains many interesting, and often worrisome, stories about the economics and politics behind the computer-based voting machine industry. From what I can tell none of the three major manufacturers (Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia) are willing to admit that their systems have well-documented security problems that could be easily exploited to allow software updates that deliberately miss-tally votes to be uploaded to machines. And in many cases, this can be done on a wholesale basis, using the machine's own communications capabilities.
One story even provides complete instructions on how to tamper with a Diebold GEMS vote tallying system. Another story documents how tampered Diebold machines may have played a pivotal role in distorting many state and local votes, as well as what appears to be some pretty damning evidence that there may be some direct connections between voting machine manufacturers and political parties of both stripes.
Apparently Diebold's security was so poor that until late January of this year, anyone who wanted it could access several gigabytes of files including manuals, source codes and installation versions of numerous parts of the Diebold voting system, and of its vote counting program. For those who are technically inclined, you can download the contents of the 7 CDs from Black Box Voting's web site so you can explore the reported security flaws yourself.
I worry that much like the 9/11 attacks have been manipulated into an artificial mandate to suspend or ignore many of our constitutional rights in the interest of "homeland security," the Florida election scandal may become the Trojan horse that mandates replacement of error-prone, but tamper-resistant, mechanical machines with "tamper-friendly" electronic machines.
It seems that the current generation of e-voting machines may be so susceptible to tampering that we must demand an open, well-documented independent investigation to identify the critical issues, and devise procedures to safeguard our machines until they can be repaired or replaced. This may be one of the least-publicized but most important issues we face today. As engineers and citizens we are some of the most qualified people to understand the problem, formulate potential solutions, and insist to our legislators that they be instituted.
For my part, I'll buy and read Black Box Voting and monitor the site from time to time to make sure I'm up to date on the issues. This will make sure I'm ready to educate my elected representatives when the opportunity presents itself. Finally, I'm going to try to make sure that our town holds on to its old mechanical voting machine for a few more years. Besides keeping our votes more secure, I want to make sure my daughter gets to enjoy the same whirring, clicking sounds, and the same smells of moldy curtains and ancient machine oil that are almost inseparably linked to my experience of democracy.
Questions? Comments? New schemes for tamper-proof voting? Write me at: lgoldberg@green-electronics.com.
NEW Read the Addendum
of July 28, 2003!