cj#423> re: computerized vote fraud

1996-01-18

Richard Moore


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Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996
Sender: Fred Baube <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: cj#411> misc. comments

> Ronnie Dugger wrote an extensive piece in the November 7, 1988, New Yorker
> (Annals of Democracy: Counting Votes) examining source codes among other
> issues.

Perhaps someone could troll the archives of the RISKS forum ?

--
F.Baube(tm)       * "Class struggle is a reality, but the ruling
G'town U MSFS '88 *  elite, by an ideological inversion, succeeds
•••@••.••• *  in making the dominated classes look like the
-- F. Mitterand, 1987

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Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996
Sender: Arun Mehta <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: cj#411> misc. comments

> Sender: •••@••.••• (Phil Mann)
> Subject: computerized vote fraud/spying trapdoors & voting
>
> Ronnie Dugger wrote an extensive piece in the November 7, 1988, New Yorker
> (Annals of Democracy: Counting Votes) examining source codes among other
> issues.  If others (including RD) more versed in the specifics than this
> writer could review and comment it would be very interesting.

I read that article in great detail, and used it effectively when
electronic voting became an issue in India when the machines were to be
introduced in 1989 ( we've not had them so far). Technically, the article
says nothing a schoolboy in programming doesn't know: that you can
program a machine any way you want. Source code was all of 5 lines, I
seem to recall.

It's really quite straight-forward: a fraudulent machine has to be able to:

1) distinguish a trial from the real thing. This it could do in a variety of
ways: a secret code keyed in by a trusted person, a radio signal that
triggers a buried receiver (any wire is an antenna, and any non-linearity
could be a radio receiver), or even duration: trials where you
demonstrate that the machine works are hardly likely to run the whole day.

2)Know who to elect. This again could be by radio receiver, secret code
typed in by one trusted voter, or even who gets the most votes in the
first half hour of voting: hardly anyone goes that early to vote, so a
candidate in the know would simply have to make sure his/her supporters
went bright and early.

Um, I made some demo programs to show to the politicians in 1989, might
have copies lying around somewhere,  but really: ask your neighborhood
geek: there really is nothing to it.

Arun Mehta, B-69 Lajpat Nagar-I, New Delhi-24, India. Phone 6841172,6849103

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 Posted by Richard K. Moore (•••@••.•••) Wexford, Ireland
 •••@••.•••  | Cyberlib=http://www.internet-eireann.ie/cyberlib
    Materials may be reposted in their entirety for non-commercial use.
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