Hope Maryland’s AccuVote is ready for me

Well, here we go: On Tuesday, Maryland [and nine other states] gets to test out its electronic voting gadgets. And we, the hapless American public, could be the victims of this little experiment:

“People complain about hanging chads,” said Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a co-author of the first study that found security flaws in the Diebold machines. “But if an electronic machine has malicious code in it, it’s possible that all of the chads are hanging — and then you have to question every vote.”

The company has worked to fix all security issues that researchers have described, said David Bear, a Diebold spokesman. “Those things have not only already been addressed,” he said, “they were implemented.”

For more than a year, Diebold also has been fighting conspiracy theories popularized on the Internet that say its Jetsons-at-the-polling-place wares serve as cover for an ongoing effort to stuff electronic ballot boxes on behalf of the Republican Party.

Diebold executives, along with outside computer security experts who are seeking to fix the voting machines, say the conspiracy theories are bunk. The company’s chief executive, Walden W. O’Dell, did not help matters, though, when he sent out a fund-raising letter for the Bush campaign last summer saying he was committed to “helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president next year.” [New York Times]

Here is the Senate report detailing the flaws and holes.

Having no paper trail just seems like a BIG BAD IDEA. An ardent, power-hungry politician’s wet dream. I mean, how can I, as a voter, go in and make sure they got my vote? I can verify my selection before I hit “Cast Ballot,” but can I see that the vote “went through”? How do I know it didn’t just vanish?

Still got questions about voting in Maryland? Want to know how to register or where to cast your [electronic, shady, potentially hackable] ballot? Check out the state Board of Elections.

February 28, 2004 | Filed Under politics