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Topic: Security

The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

Summary: In this exclusive interview, ZDNet' Government's David Gewirtz sits down with Dr. Jon Warner of Argonne National Laboratories for a deep dive into voting machine hacking.

David Gewirtz

By for ZDNet Government |

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column here on ZDNet Government entitled, Four outrageous political stories that will make you scream.

In it, I discussed a number of outrages, but one in particular caught my eye: research by the scientists at Argonne National Labs showing the ease at which voting machines could be hacked. This is an issue of great concern, because free and reliable voting is at the core of every democracy.

Voting, essentially, is democracy.

After I published the article, Stephen McGregor of Argonne contacted me and offered me the opportunity to talk with Dr. Jon Warner, the scientist who conducted the study and who came up with the startling conclusions.

What follows is that interview, and it's both fascinating and freaky. I also want to send a special shout-out of thanks to Jon for his great patience in the process. This was the maiden voyage of the studio I've been working on over at ZDNet's DIY-IT and Jon was quite patient while some extra fiddling and tuning was required.

Here then is ZDNet Government's exclusive interview with Dr. Jon Warner of Argonne National Labs. It'll make your hair curl.

Topic: Security

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  • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

    [ SOS ] Complaint about Human Rights Violations by IBM China on Centennial

    Please Google:

    Tragedy of Labor Rights Repression in IBM China
    or
    How Much IBM Can Get Away with is the Responsibility of the Media
    or
    IBM detained mother of ex-employee on the day of centennials
    larkforsure
    Reply Vote

    • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

      @larkforsure The companies are firmly under the thumb of the Chinese government and "get away" with what the government wants. In China it is my way or the highway.
      hayneiii@...
      Reply Vote

  • Insider is the real problem

    freedom-to-tinker DOT com/blog/appel/nj-election-cover<br><br>If you're not familiar with this one, they had a vote in the primary, the most popular Democrat *lost*. <br><br>"Following the election, the County Clerk certified the results as Vivian Henry, 34 votes; Mark Henry, 33 votes; Ernest Zirkle, 9 votes; and Cynthia Zirkle, 10 votes."<br><br>This is a very small election and so Zirkles got affadavits from people who had voted for them, (28 of them), showing the vote was wrong.<br><br>The administer of the election said 'oh I configured it wrong' and the person who checks it claimed them made a mistake in the double check.<br><br>R-i-g-h-t, here's the thing, its next to impossible to prove fraud, its easy to do, only a few people need to be paid off, and when you catch them, they just claim some implausible mistake.<br><br>Without a paper trail, without a checks on that paper trail, none of these elections have any validity, because the vote just isn't taken seriously enough by anyone except people who want to rig an election.<br><br>If you remember they spend millions gender/racially/social profiling Americans in order to win elections, if you think they would never spend $10k to pay off a couple of officials, then you're deluded.
    guihombre
    Reply Vote

    • There needs to be much more at stake for these cheaters ie: their life.

      @guihombre @ if voter fraud was punished as treason which is what it actually is, those involved should be shot.

      You would find over night the management of most of the voting machine companies would change, they are greedy traitors not brave pioneers as they promote.
      Reality Bites
      Reply Vote

      • I wouldn't execute an election fraudster...

        @Reality Bites
        ...but I would imprison him for 25 years and permanently disenfranchise him.
        John L. Ries
        Reply Vote

      • Penalties DON'T work

        Because the penalties are set by the people in power, if you can't prove it now, you can't prove it in future no matter what the penalty is, and the penalties would be set by the 'winners/cheaters' anyway. So if by some luck you *could* prove it, then they'd change the law to reduce the penalty.

        The only way is to make an auditable election and audit it! It should never have been made so trivial to cheat in the first place.
        guihombre
        Reply Vote

  • Voter fraud is treason... shoot them.

    We would quickly find the elections would run a lot smoother and an entirely different government would come into place.
    Reality Bites
    Reply Vote

  • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

    Hi i live in Ireland and the Irish GOV.spent millions of Euros on e voting machines that had to be scrapped because of security issues a few years back,
    Con
    coma123@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

    http://xrl.us/bmgwhv
    sdfgklryj
    Reply Vote

  • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

    There are so many layers to election corruption, this is just one of them. In 2000, Bush/Cheney proved that the presidency could be bought at the Supreme Court level. Black Box Voting has shown that even with a paper trail, local election officials are regularly throwing out election receipts. The Republican Party's operatives have been working for years to disenfranchise and redline poor voters. And with Citizens United, everything can be run totally above board and those with the money can *still* get what they want simply by spending as much as they need to. We no longer have a democracy. Instead, it's a red, white, and blue show to dupe citizens into thinking there is one.
    enovikoff
    Reply Vote

    • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

      I suppose that ACORN was an extension of the Republican Party and not of the Democrats and the Organizer-In-Chief?
      fredlave@...
      Reply Vote

    • Your total ignorance of the events surrounding the

      2000 election eliminates your credibility from this argument. You're ignorant on the purpose of electors and how they are selected. You're ignorant of the lawsuits brought by Gore and his attempt at selective recounts. You're ignorant of the re-count corruption to favor Gore votes (attempting to determine voter intent from dimpled chads? Please). And, finally, you're ignorant of why we moved to black box voting in the first place. Hint, it was because Democrats insisted their voters were too stupid to read a paper ballot they designed.
      baggins_z
      Reply Vote

    • Throwing out election receipts?

      @enovikoff
      You know, if our town did that, there'd be a couple of new graves in the town cemetary.

      If more citizens dealt with government corruption that way, maybe we wouldn't have as many corrupt officials around. I always figured that if a guy got sent to prison for killing a corrupt government official, he ought to get the highest level of respect from the rest of the population; unlike child abusers or those who beat up on the elderly.
      Dr_Zinj
      Reply Vote

      • Interesting

        @Dr_Zinj
        Would that be the case if people were only suspected of vote rigging, or would it require proof?

        I'm not really big on lynch mobs (they have a tendency to punish the unpopular innocent as often as the guilty), so I'm glad I don't live in your town.
        John L. Ries
        Reply Vote

    • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

      @enovikoff

      There you go.... it's those eeeeEEEEEEEEEvil Republicans again.
      Hallowed are the Ori
      Reply Vote

    • What a bunch of crap!

      In 2000, there were many recounts, and in each case, Bush/Cheney won. And, even the liberal newspapers, like the NY Times, did their own counting, and Gore lost. Gore and his cohorts were the only crooks in 2000, whereby, after the recounts showed them losing, they resorted to trying to steal the election by counting only the counties which were undoubtedly massively liberal and favorable to democrats. That's when the case was brought to the US Supreme Court, to stop the "disenfranchisement" of voters which was being attempted by Gore and democrats. <br><br>The real crooks then and in all elections are the democrats, and in just about every case where voter fraud was charged, it was the democrats using illegal tactics, and counting dead people, and using out of state people, and counting people over and over again, and keeping ballot boxes from being counted, and many people crossing state lines to vote illegally in other states after having voted in their allotted district. It happens over and over again with democrats, whose mantra is "do whatever it takes" to win.<br><br>The fact is that, if all voter fraud were to be stopped, democrats would lose most elections, and thus, they have to resort to cheating.<br><br>Even the charges about voting machines being rigged is a tactic that the democrats use to deflect attention from their own crookedness.
      adornoe
      Reply Vote

      • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

        @adornoe@...

        And, like a good Republican, you re-write history as you see fit.

        Lemme guess, you view slavery as 'lifestyle training' and outlawing abortion as 'morality assurance', eh?
        UrNotPayingAttention
        Reply Vote

      • So only Democrats rig elections?

        @adornoe@... <br>I find that hard to believe, given our country's history.<br><br>Do you assert this because your favorite talk show host told you so, or have you done some independent research?

        I see you did respond: All I see here are dogmatic assertions, based on the assumption that the Republicans have been the Good Guy Party continuously since the party was founded in 1854 (presumably, it was the Whigs before that), leading me to believe that you're simply parroting what the precinct captains in headphones say.
        John L. Ries
        Reply Vote

      • US uses Exit Polls to Determine Election Fraud

        @adornoe@... The standard the USgov uses to determine election fraud is whether the end results differ from the exits polls by a significant margin. I forget the exact standard, but in Florida the exit polls where running strongly in favor of Gore. I think an international commission should have supervised the election or the recount given the vast difference.
        bigsteve666
        Reply Vote

      • RE: The scary truth about voting machine hacking risk (exclusive video)

        @bigsteve666

        ...exactly.

        Both the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court's basis of their decision was that it would "take too long" to get a true and accurate count.

        So they stopped the recount in it's tracks before a recount could be finished, you know, after all the 'chad' BS.

        Oh, and can someone please remind me? ...was it Al Gore or George Bush who's brother was the Gov. of Florida at the time???
        UrNotPayingAttention
        Reply Vote
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