It's Official: Diebold Election Bugware Can't Be Trusted

[Gold9472]

It's official: Diebold election bugware can't be trusted
The company implies as much

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11..._hides_source/

By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Published Wednesday 30th November 2005 14:50 GMT

Diebold would rather lose all of its voting machine business in North Carolina than open its source code to state election officials as required by law, the Associated Press reports.

Due to irregularities in the 2004 election traced to touch screen terminals, North Carolina has taken the very reasonable precaution of requiring vendors of electronic voting gizmos to place all of the source code in escrow. Diebold has objected to the possibility of criminal sanctions if they fail to comply, and argued for an exemption before Wake County Superior Court Judge Narley Cashwell. The judge declined to issue an exemption, and Diebold has concluded that it has no choice but withdraw from the state.

The company's explanation is that their machines contain Microsoft software, which they have no right to make available to state election officials. This seems disingenuous, as it is hard to imagine Microsoft suing Diebold for complying with the law. It would hardly be Diebold's fault if it released MS code to a lawful authority on demand; that issue would be something for MS and North Carolina to work out.

One far-fetched explanation would be that MS has licensed its software to Diebold with a provision that the company withdraw from jurisdictions where the law requires the release of its source code. It's possible, but there's no reason to believe it.

A considerably more plausible explanation is that Diebold is using this non-problem as an excuse to keep its bugware from the prying eyes of government regulators. And the most likely reason for that is that they've got a lot of blunders to hide. If North Carolina were to reject the machines on the basis of their software, other states would undoubtedly become suspicious, and begin doing their own investigations. So in that case, withdrawing from the market is the smartest move the company can make.

But if the software is as good as the company claims, then North Carolina's future endorsement will make for excellent free advertising. Withdrawing from the market would be a very foolish move in that case, but, again, only if Diebold has nothing to hide. ®

[beltman713]

This is good, hopefully we can get fair elections here in NC now.

[Gold9472]

This is good, hopefully we can get fair elections here in NC now.

You're craaaaazy.

[beltman713]

Maybe...

[beltman713]

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002105.htm

'IMMACULATE CERTIFICATION'! DIEBOLD ALLOWED IN NORTH CAROLINA AFTER ALL!

(Beltman713: This is such fucking bullshit!)

Voting Company Apparently Just Kidding About Pulling Out of State!
Former Diebold Rep, Now on NC Election Advisory Board Certifies Diebold, Despite Apparent Failure to Comply with State Law Requiring Source Code Escrow!

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org Surprise! Diebold got certified in North Carolina today. In what the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling the "Immaculate Certification" the North Carolina...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Surprise! Diebold got certified in North Carolina today. In what the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling the "Immaculate Certification" the North Carolina State Board of Elections has decided to certify Diebold. This is the same Diebold that three days ago said that they would have to pull out of consideration in the state because they were not willing to put their buggy software source code from their flawed Voting Machines into escrow claiming they had third-party software that could not be submitted to the state. This is the same Diebold that, as BRAD BLOG correctly surmised, were apparently making faux claims about their need to pull out of NC due to a court's refusal to allow them exemption from that state law. But what else is new for a company like Diebold?

[Gold9472]

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002105.htm

'IMMACULATE CERTIFICATION'! DIEBOLD ALLOWED IN NORTH CAROLINA AFTER ALL!

(Beltman713: This is such fucking bullshit!)

Voting Company Apparently Just Kidding About Pulling Out of State!
Former Diebold Rep, Now on NC Election Advisory Board Certifies Diebold, Despite Apparent Failure to Comply with State Law Requiring Source Code Escrow!

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org Surprise! Diebold got certified in North Carolina today. In what the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling the "Immaculate Certification" the North Carolina...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Surprise! Diebold got certified in North Carolina today. In what the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling the "Immaculate Certification" the North Carolina State Board of Elections has decided to certify Diebold. This is the same Diebold that three days ago said that they would have to pull out of consideration in the state because they were not willing to put their buggy software source code from their flawed Voting Machines into escrow claiming they had third-party software that could not be submitted to the state. This is the same Diebold that, as BRAD BLOG correctly surmised, were apparently making faux claims about their need to pull out of NC due to a court's refusal to allow them exemption from that state law. But what else is new for a company like Diebold?

As I said...

You're craaaaazy.

[ThotPolice]

In Canada I don't think we use those machines, still last mayoral election 4 16yr old high school kids voted a number of times each and different stations... their votes got in. Then they went to the media. (can't find story) Just goes to show you elections are a load of crap.

[Uber Commandante]

elections should be boycotted if they depend on those machines. As a software developer I have two thoughts on this:

1) Do you have any idea how fucking easy it would be to write convaluted code that woudl switch every couple of votes? There is no paper trail, and so NO WAY to verify the software results. HELLLOOOOOO????!!!!

2) Having worked in this industry for several years now, and having spoken with many other developers, I think I can say that most corporate software is generally of a pretty low quality. Development efforts are invariably sabatoged by management that forces you to put out less then production worthy code. I have no faith that Diebold is any different than any other private software development ventures.

On top of this, I just read a white paper yesterday (sorry, it was at home, so I have no link), that was a software development critique of Diebold Code, and in several places in talked about the code not being production worthy. That cryptography was used incorrectly all over the place, and teh encryption key was hardcoded intot he software, and so if one gets hacked, all other machines can be hacked.

This e-voting is complete bullshit. - at least until there is a paper-based back-up system and source code that is available for review, yet still secure because of how it is built.

[Gold9472]

Boycotting the vote would be an extremely powerful message... unfortunately, if the MSM doesn't cover the corruption related to it... no one knows... or... not enough...