PICTURE: http://testequip.com//sale/used/pictures/hes2152.jpg
6. Put the sticker back on the chip's glass window and put it into the chip
burner
connected to the PC, and download your tampered code from your PC back to
the chip.
7. Put the chip back into the "pack" and you're done.
We have no reason to think that the security of the chip's contents is any
better
than in the Diebold environment. While this needs testing, it appears that
hacking
could cause all votes to be switched between any two candidates simply by
altering the chip data.
Dr. Jones suggests the possibility of causing a minor party candidate's votes to
go to a major party candidate, in addition to the major party candidate's proper
votes.
This would have the "benefit" of harming a small parties, possibly denying them
ballot access. Each major party has at least one smaller party that tends to
take
a small chunk out of them - the Democrats always lose a few candidates to the
Greens, the GOP loses a few to the Libertarians. Each major party would like to
see their smaller more radical cousin go away, and that sort of hacking could do
it.
THE WORSE NEWS
While moderately advanced hackers should be able to alter the contents of these
packs fairly easily, county election officials can't. Therefore, by design, the
memory cards need to be programmed inside the vendor's corporate headquarters.
WILL THEY DO IT CORRECTLY?
Well let's see: ES&S was partially owned by now-Senator Chuck Hagel at the time
Hagel won his first major political victory to get into congress. Hagel's
victory in
the primary was so stunning that it made national news. According to CNN's "All
Politics,"
Hagel hoped he could make lightening strike twice by winning the big prize - and
he did.
He defeated popular Democratic Governor Ben Nelson who led in the polls since
the
opening gun in what the Washington Post called "The major Republican upset in
the
November [1996] election."
(more: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-3.pdf)
Louisiana state elections chief Jerry Fowler was convicted on felony charges of
taking bribes from Sequoia officials for system purchase decisions - one of
Sequoia's
key people, Phil Foster, was indicted but the charges were dropped after a judge
concluded that his immunized grand jury testimony couldn't be used against him.
(more: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf)
So, is turning over the very foundation of Democracy to ES&S and Sequoia a
good idea? We think not.
CONCLUSION
Nobody at the Federal or state testing labs seems to think like a hacker and
tries
to find ways to defeat these things. For that matter, nobody is paying attention
to
the basic ethics of the situation. No one ever asked the American citizens
whether
we choose to remain a Constitutional Republic versus a Corporate Republic.
Black Box Voting would like to do a "test hack" on the Optech with the blessing
of
public officials in any jurisdiction. Because these machines are not HAVA
compliant,
they are being phased out. We ask your help in facilitating this opportunity.
"There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the
government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves.
They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power,
and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They
alone
are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government."
-- Thomas Jefferson - END
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
6. Put the sticker back on the chip's glass window and put it into the chip
burner
connected to the PC, and download your tampered code from your PC back to
the chip.
7. Put the chip back into the "pack" and you're done.
We have no reason to think that the security of the chip's contents is any
better
than in the Diebold environment. While this needs testing, it appears that
hacking
could cause all votes to be switched between any two candidates simply by
altering the chip data.
go to a major party candidate, in addition to the major party candidate's proper
votes.
This would have the "benefit" of harming a small parties, possibly denying them
ballot access. Each major party has at least one smaller party that tends to
take
a small chunk out of them - the Democrats always lose a few candidates to the
Greens, the GOP loses a few to the Libertarians. Each major party would like to
see their smaller more radical cousin go away, and that sort of hacking could do
it.
THE WORSE NEWS
While moderately advanced hackers should be able to alter the contents of these
packs fairly easily, county election officials can't. Therefore, by design, the
memory cards need to be programmed inside the vendor's corporate headquarters.
WILL THEY DO IT CORRECTLY?
Well let's see: ES&S was partially owned by now-Senator Chuck Hagel at the time
Hagel won his first major political victory to get into congress. Hagel's
victory in
the primary was so stunning that it made national news. According to CNN's "All
Politics,"
Hagel hoped he could make lightening strike twice by winning the big prize - and
he did.
He defeated popular Democratic Governor Ben Nelson who led in the polls since
the
opening gun in what the Washington Post called "The major Republican upset in
the
November [1996] election."
(more: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-3.pdf)
Louisiana state elections chief Jerry Fowler was convicted on felony charges of
taking bribes from Sequoia officials for system purchase decisions - one of
Sequoia's
key people, Phil Foster, was indicted but the charges were dropped after a judge
concluded that his immunized grand jury testimony couldn't be used against him.
(more: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf)
So, is turning over the very foundation of Democracy to ES&S and Sequoia a
good idea? We think not.
CONCLUSION
Nobody at the Federal or state testing labs seems to think like a hacker and
tries
to find ways to defeat these things. For that matter, nobody is paying attention
to
the basic ethics of the situation. No one ever asked the American citizens
whether
we choose to remain a Constitutional Republic versus a Corporate Republic.
Black Box Voting would like to do a "test hack" on the Optech with the blessing
of
public officials in any jurisdiction. Because these machines are not HAVA
compliant,
they are being phased out. We ask your help in facilitating this opportunity.
"There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the
government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves.
They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power,
and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They
alone
are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government."
-- Thomas Jefferson - END
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
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