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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| US Judge allows experimental, untested Ohio voting software patch |
| 2012-11-09 |
| US judge allows Ohio voting software, alleged to be vulnerable to fraud What could possibly go wrong? On Election Day, a federal judge said the plaintiff failed to show any 'actual and imminent harm' from voting software used in almost a third of Ohio's counties. The concern was of a digital 'back door' that someone might exploit to alter vote totals. And who knows more about software than a federal judge? A federal judge on Tuesday refused to grant a temporary injunction to prevent Ohio election officials from using new election software installed recently in county computers to format vote totals and transmit them to the Secretary of State's Office. "Here! What are you men doing?" "Software update, boss!" "I didn't order a software update!" "Sez right here y'did. So we update yer software!" In his ruling, US District Judge Gregory Frost said the motion filed Monday in Columbus failed to show any "actual and imminent harm" from the software, which an expert witness for the plaintiff had claimed would created a digital "back door" that someone might exploit to alter vote totals. "Really, there's nothing to worry about. A very nice fellow called from the union hall and explained it all to me. So I'm ruling against you." The suit alleged that the Secretary of State's Office used a legal loophole to install software on electronic voting systems in county vote-tabulation machines without having it checked by the Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners, the state's technical board that is charged with reviewing election software. State officials say that they have followed federal guidelines and that the equipment is secure. "Yeah. We don't need no Board of Voting Machine Examiners! The guys from the union fixed everything." Bob Fitrakis, the Green Party candidate for Congress who filed the suit, has alleged that the Secretary of State's Office eluded the Ohio Board of Voting Machine Examiners by deeming the software "experimental," because last-minute fixes under that moniker do not require certification and testing. And God knows there's nothing that works better or is more secure than experimental software. Mr. Fitrakis says the contract with the firm that sells the software was leaked to FreePress.org, of which he is editor. Thirty years working as a computer programmer tells me that an untested patch at the last minute before going live is a recipe for disaster. In an affidavit supporting the filing, James March, an expert witness on voting machines, testified that the 28-page contract describes in detail the requirements for the software -- showing that a third party could gain access to county vote totals. During the hearing, computer security expert Michael Duniho of Pima County, Ariz., testified by phone that the installed software, called EXP software, could make county vote-tabulation computers vulnerable to a virus that could change vote counts. But Judge Frost said Fitrakis's experts did not show sufficient familiarity with the software in question and were merely "speculative." "Fitrakis has failed to demonstrate actual and imminent harm," Frost wrote in his 10- page decision. "His claim to injunctive relief is based on a series of speculative assumptions about what the EXP software might do to the county vote tabulation computers and how someone might be able to use the EXP software to alter election results. Fitrakis has not provided actual evidence that demonstrates how this harm is a realistic possibility, much less how it is actual and imminent." Fitrakis has filed a similar motion to halt tabulation using the software with a state court, whose ruling on matters of state law is expected soon. |
| Posted by:Ebbang Uluque6305 |
| #10 One more lesson to be learned from this article, perhaps the most important lesson of all, is that the state Secretary of States offices are extremely important. Republicans should seek these offices with all the dirty tricks employed by Democrats. Hire detectives to dig up dirt. Investigate the hell out of Democrat secretaries of state or any Democrat who aspires to such a position. If they do get elected, watch them like hawks and sue their asses off at the drop of a hat. If they wanna fight that way, give them hell. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-11-09 13:50 |
| #9 Who has links to the machines and software? Follow the money and power. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2012-11-09 13:40 |
| #8 Trailing wife: In Europe ballots just don't disappear and Al Franken would have et best be laughed out of the country and at wors gone straight to jail. Also, at thevery beginning of compters when these still used electronic valvbes on of the programing pioners said: "Computers should nevr bne used for vote coiunting, the rislk of fraud iss just too high |
| Posted by: JFM 2012-11-09 12:01 |
| #7 Great inlines, Fred. If it wasn't so despicably evil it'd be funny. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-11-09 11:39 |
| #6 Only one state out of the 50 required new software a few days prior to the election, and that state was.... OHIO ? "It doesn't matter who votes, it only matters who counts the votes". You already know the author. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-11-09 09:25 |
| #5 Someone really needs to leak the source code. Lets take a look and see if there are any 'back doors'. Rjschwarz - very good ideas. Get rid of motor-voter and voter-registration drives - make them register, in person, with photo-id and proof of citizenship. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2012-11-09 08:10 |
| #4 They should move voting to a weekend. Get rid of early voting and just give everyone 48 hours. End mail in votes. Have ballots that can be filled in at home and a fast pass line to get you through quick if you've already done the work. They should have ballots in scantron form (cause all americans know how that works) and have you drop it in a machine and confirm visually. Three reciepts provide your vote info. One for each partys poll watcher and one for the voter. They should clean the voter rolls after every presidential election and have you register again. You should get a picture voter id card and that should be checked prior to casting your vote. Those voter registration deals should be able to provide copies of each voter id card they gave out so that the two cards can be matched up at the voter booth instead of using a list. Anyone tampering with the process should get serious jail time. Many of these ideas should be put on the bsllots of the 50 states so folks can vote on them and change the dystem on a grass roots level. Force the cheaters to defend themselves. |
| Posted by: Rjschwarz 2012-11-09 08:01 |
| #3 The point of the electronic machines was to prevent the kind of mischief that paper ballots are prone to: disappearing bags of votes, shredded ballots marked for the wrong candidate, extra ballots marked for our guy... The machine I voted on is electronic, but also creates a paper tape of the ballot choices and demands agreement that the choices are correct before the vote is registered, in an effort to put those concerns to rest. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2012-11-09 07:37 |
| #2 Just. use. paper. ballots. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-11-09 02:52 |
| #1 I think electronic voting is a bad idea but assuming we are going to have it going forward their should be a law saying that nothing can change for the month before the election and that all political parties have access to a voting machine for the month prior to that to ensure they feel it is fair and accurate. This is nonsense. We are a first world nation that is turning into a third world klepotcracy really, really fast. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2012-11-09 00:10 |