|
Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week //2008 Electronic
voting fraud – much easier than the old smoke filled rooms
? We have a
new President elect today, a time to celebrate democracy and the right of
every citizen’s right to vote, but somewhere in the back of my head
I’m worried that every vote wasn’t tabulated correctly ... After the
much publicized fiasco of the Florida hanging chads
that delayed election results for days in our 2000 Presidential election, a
strong case was made to eliminate the ridiculous archaic paper ballot
systems, and switch to completely computerized systems. After all, computers
have been around for over half a century now, and have been used related to elections
dating back to the UNIVAC computer
which successfully forecast
Eisenhower's landslide victory over Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. ... And
aren’t we a nation and a world now totally dependent on computers and
the internet ? Why
shouldn’t we use computers in elections ? Well, as
one who has worked both in the fields of politics and in the computer
industry for decades, quite frankly I don’t trust either. I was a
precinct committee person here in Spokane back in the 70’s, when the
old patronage system was just breaking up, and there actually were deals made
in smoke filled rooms. My college degree is in Political Science, and
politics is all about power, and the abuse there of. I’ve also been a
city council person, and was the mayor of a small town. I’ve
worked with computers since the mid 1970’s, in the mainframe/mini and
personal computer industries, and I’ve seen incredible advances in computer
technology, but what I haven’t seen is a computer system that is
completely secure and can’t be tampered with, which is what all the
companies who sell electronic voting systems claim their systems are. Maybe
they have some kind of kryptonite shields or something that I’m not
aware of, which makes their systems invulnerable. But
how did these companies get this capability, when the biggest computer companies in the world
– like Microsoft and IBM – are constantly reporting newly found
vulnerabilities in their products, and issuing patch after patch. And can
these companies possibly be so naive that they don’t think their
systems wouldn’t be the #1 target of hackers, if not for monetary gain
– at least for internet street credibility, so the hackers can brag
about it to their peers ? Computer
voting is open to easy fraud, the experts say . Particularly when the
vendors sell election boards on doing away with bothersome details, like a
paper audit trail. Many
people fear the specter of an
election determined by computer fraud but the hardest thing is proving that
the electronic fraud actually happened.
A good hacker can cover their tracks, and this has been proven in case
after case. Many experts are still
opposed to electronic voting and you can do your own research on this
topic on the internet. .But to
me it’s just a gut feeling, if I don’t trust two things, I
don’t trust the results. |
|
|
For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2008 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
|