as if anyone couldn't have predicted this!


Study: E-voting flaws risk ballot fraud
Report finds electronic voting vulnerable to tampering
Friday, July 25, 2003 Posted: 10:01 AM EDT (1401 GMT)

• Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- An electronic voting system used in some states as an alternative to the troublesome punch-card ballots is highly vulnerable to fraud, computer security experts warned in a study released Thursday.

The study found "significant security flaws" with the system designed by Diebold Election Systems. The system was vulnerable to unscrupulous voters as well as "insiders such as poll workers, software developers and even janitors," who could cast multiple votes without a trace, the study said.

The findings were based on a July study of the computer code used in the voting system. The code was posted anonymously on the Internet earlier this year.

Diebold reached an agreement this month with Maryland to provide up to $55.6 million in voting technology, expanding the use of touch screens from four counties to the rest of the state.

Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University, a lead researcher on the study, said there is no quick fix for the software. Rubin said he planned to urge state officials not to use the system.

"You guys just bought something that doesn't work," Rubin said he planned to tell Maryland election officials. "Go get a refund."