I'm a big fan of comics, and try to keep track of all that capture the ridiculous state of U.S. elections now that our vote is secretly counted on software software that can be hacked without detection.So this latest one made it into my inbox.Enjoy!
Frank & Ernest by Bob Thaves
David L. Dill is a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and made this comment, which appears in the film Hacking Democracy (transcribed by Andi Novick):
"Supposing we didn't have any computers at all and when you went to vote.The voting booth was separated by a curtain and there was a guy behind the curtain who would write down your votes. So you just dictate them, he writes them down and when you're done you leave without being able to look at the ballot. Most people in their right mind would not trust this process, the guy behind the curtain could be incompetent; he could hear your votes wrong and record them improperly; or it could be that he doesn't like your political affiliation and would prefer to see your votes cast for someone else.
"In an electronic voting machine you don't have a little guy inside the machine taking dictation, but you have lots of people who are involved in writing the software and lots of people who could have touched the software before it went into that machine. If one of those people put something malicious in the software and it's distributed to all the machines, then that one person could be responsible for the change of tens of thousands of votes maybe even hundred of thousands across the country. That's a very dangerous situation."
If you'd like to read more quotes by computer security experts, we've collected them in three formats:brief; longer; and a bibliographic list in which you can read the full report.
If you want to help us keep computerized voting systems out of New York, please sign this petition or contact me directly.I have a ton of jobs to farm out to the hundreds of volunteers who have already signed up.Join the revolution help New York lead this nation out of this "very dangerous situation."
In 2004, Rady Ananda joined the growing community of citizen journalists. Initially focused on elections, she investigated the 2004 Ohio election, organizing, training and leading several forays into counties to photograph the 2004 ballots. She officially served at three recounts, including the 2004 recount. She also organized and led the team that audited Franklin County Ohio's 2006 election, proving the number of voter signatures did not match official results. Her work appears in three books.
Her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She spent most of her working life as a researcher or investigator for private lawyers, and five years as an editor.
She graduated from The Ohio State University's School of Agriculture in December 2003 with a B.S. in Natural Resources.
All material offered here is the property of Rady Ananda, copyright 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. Permission is granted to repost, with proper attribution including the original link.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." Tell the truth anyway.
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