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Electronic Voting Systems Go Unattended


Posted by George Hulme, Feb 5, 2008 07:05 PM

It’s been nearly eight years since the 2000 election fiasco, and it seems with every election, the complaints of failing voting systems only seem to mount.

K.C. Jones' story details how some areas are reporting significant problems with their electronic voting systems, including New Jersey and Georgia.

Problems reported include paper printers not functioning to problems starting machines. I guess that's better than the thing rebooting right after you vote.

Now, many reports have detailed how electronic voting machines are insecure, especially if anyone were able to gain access to the machines before the election.

That's why it wasn't so very reassuring to see that Ed Felten, professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University and director of Princeton's Center for IT Policy, was able to access unattended electronic voting machines at two different locations, on two different evenings, before today's elections.

Now, Mr. Felton says that he didn't tamper with anything. And I certainly believe him, but unfortunately we only have his word to take for it. The photos are available at his blog, Freedom-to-Tinker.

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