California Refuses To Certify Diebold Voting Machines

from the denied dept

The California Secretary of State has refused to certify Diebold voting machines used in 17 counties there, citing “unresolved significant security concerns” with the memory cards that store votes. This comes a week after similar machines in Florida were hacked in a demonstration that showed how vote tallies on the cards could be rigged. The Secretary of State’s office wants Diebold to turn over its source code for examination, and the company says it’s “always willing to participate in responsible testing” — which is odd, seeing as how it said earlier it would rather pull out of North Carolina than submit its code for review there (but, of course, got certified anyway). Diebold doesn’t do much to instill confidence that its machines are secure, and enough questions remain around other machines as well to make it clear that the testing and certification process needs to be greatly improved. While Diebold thinks only secrecy can deliver security, it’s really transparency that’s needed most.


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Comments on “California Refuses To Certify Diebold Voting Machines”

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2 Comments
Jeremiah (user link) says:

Meanwhile...

Meanwhile, $3.8 million targeted for fixing election-system problems was improperly spent by then Sec. of State Shelley. From the article:

“Congress passed the act in 2002 after the problems with voting machines and access to polling places that surfaced during the 2000 presidential election. California has received about $180 million in federal money to upgrade voting equipment and procedures. Federal authorities froze another $170 million after questions arose about Shelley’s spending, money that was released in June after Shelley had been replaced.”

via SFGate.

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