IF (KERRYVOTE and KERRY_TOTAL > BUSH_TOTAL) {
BUSH_TOTAL = BUSH_TOTAL + 1;
} else {
KERRY_TOTAL = KERRY_TOTAL + 1;
}
With closed-source, eyes-only software, the conspiracy really wouldn't have to be that vast. When you can't examine the source code http://www.bluescreendemocracy.org/archive/bsd/whyopensource.php, you can't be sure what's going on inside that computer. Period.
Of course, plain old bad-design fuckups may be even more insidious than a potential vote-heisting conspiracy. Pretty much every New Mexico county that used electronic voting machines mysteriously lost votes in 2004 (over 18,000 in total) http://verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5405, which is one of the reasons Bernalillo http://www.alibi.com/editorial/section_display.php?di=2005-12-15&scn=news#13608 and Santa Fe http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/voting-machines-outtakes-120705.php county clerks have been dodging activist groups and eight NM voters http://www1.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_local/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19858_4354785,00.html have hung a temporary restraining order on the secretary of state to prevent the purchase of suspect Sequoia Edge machines.
Not enough? In Florida, less than three weeks ago, Finnish security expert Harri Hursti performed a vote-switch hack using a stock Diebold voting machine http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/1444, clearly demonstrating that “the entire system can be compromised without producing error messages and without leaving a trace, using nothing but a memory card.” http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/show.cgi?tpc=1954&post=15156#POST15156 Since Diebold's voting machines are really Windows PCs in disguise, the lousy security should come as no shock, but what's at stake here is much more significant than another Hoodia pop-up ad.
Fear the black box. Open the source. http://www.bluescreendemocracy.org/volunteer/
