Calif.: All Vote Machines Tested Hackable

Secretary Of State Report Shows No System Tested Was Immune From Tampering

(AP)  Secretary of State Debra Bowen released the first part of her review of California's voting systems Friday, seven days before she must decide whether to decertify any of the systems for the presidential primary.

It found that computer experts were able to breach all the systems they studied and change the machines' results. But the experts did that under artificial conditions, with unimpeded access to the equipment, a situation that ordinarily would not occur.

Matt Bishop, a computer scientist at the University of California, Davis, who led the team, said the findings must be evaluated in light of the security systems that county election officials have in place before any conclusions can be reached about whether the machines are reliable.

Bowen, who has made electronic voting security the centerpiece of her administration, said she needed to spend the weekend reviewing the reports before commenting on them.

"I am still in analysis mode," she said during a conference call with reporters, "and do not have any conclusion based on reports I have not read."

The review has been rushed because of the earlier-than-ever primary on Feb. 5. It did not include voting systems used in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties.

Bowen said that was because the company that makes the machines, Election Systems & Software, had refused to give her the information she needed in time. A company spokesman said they delayed because they wanted more information about how the review would be conducted.

By law, Bowen must let counties know six months before the election that she is going to decertify their equipment. That means she must decide by Aug. 3, too soon to complete reviews of Election Systems & Software's equipment.

Instead, a spokeswoman for Bowen said she could subject that equipment to higher standards.

County elections officials see Bowen's "top-to-bottom review" as unnecessary. They say their equipment already meets federal standards and was approved by Bowen's predecessor, Bruce McPherson.

Steve Weir, president of the state association of registrars, said it was not news that voting systems could be breached under ideal conditions.

"They were given permission to get into the systems," he said. "It's not a real world test."

Experts examined systems built by Diebold Election Systems, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems.

One team tried to breach the machines' security. Another tested to see how accessible they were for voters with disabilities. A third group looked at the source code used in the machines. That report was withheld Friday because of concerns that it might contain proprietary information.

Among the findings:

The physical security was weak (Testers were able to access the internals of Sequoia's machines by unscrewing screws to bypass locks, and compromise Diebold's AccuVote TSx machine without prompting reminders to voters to check their printed records).

Software was overwritable with malicious code (Testers could load a program into a machine's memory which, at the next reboot, loaded malicious firmware, at which point an attacker could manipulate the election results, with no access to source code required; attacks on Diebold's machines allowed testers to overwrite firmware, which could change vote totals, and escalate privileges from those of a voter to a poll worker or central count administrator, enabling them to reset an election, issue unauthorized voter cards, and close polls; testers overwrote Hart's eScan software and issued administrative commands.)

Continued

• 1
• 2
• Next

©MMVI, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Share:

Digg

Facebook

Yahoo! Buzz

Twitter

Mixx

More From Politics

• Official: Obama Wants New Afghan Options
• Calif. Democrats Mull Jerry Brown for Gov.
• Poll: Public Unhappy, but Sticks by Obama
• Taliban Surpasses Al Qaeda in Afghanistan
• NY Senate Fails to Vote on Gay Marriage
• GM Boss Vows to Repay Bailout Loans
• Rajiv Shah Nominated to be USAID Chief

• 

  VideoWounded Soldier's New Chapter

• 

  VideoLawmaker's Non-profit Probed

Add a Comment

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next

See all 50 Comments

by gunownerdan August 1, 2007 10:59 AM EDT

Not only are we forced to vote for either a dirty democrat or a rotten republican, the stupid voting machines are easily hackable or secretly programmed.
The next president will be whoever big-money wants and most Americans couldn't care less.

"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961

Reply to this comment

by venkata4--2008 July 31, 2007 7:59 PM EDT

"Two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich became executives in the two biggest voting system companies in the US. Bob Urosevich ran Diebold Election Systems --
Imagine a candidate getting an extra 3893 votes in just 1% of the precincts nationwide. Is it coincidence that the machines that gave bush the 3893 extra votes were by Diebold, whose CEO Walden O'Dell had promised to deliver Ohio's electoral votes for Bush?
Posted by firststate at 09:55 PM : Jul 30, 2007"

That is exactly the point. Now these machines are qualified to be put 2008 November elections. Good job Diebold & 2008 is to be delivered .

Reply to this comment

by firststate July 31, 2007 3:48 PM EDT

BobEBenson missed the point. When you consider the problems the machines have had and then you add in the potential for hacking and tampering, you can't KNOW that Gore actually lost in any state. Diebold awarded 3,893 bonus votes for bush in one Ohio precinct. If that happened in just 100 precincts out of the thousands in each state, that would be 389,300 bonus bush votes per state. That number is greater than bush's margin of victory in most of the states he's supposed to have carried. Did that happen? Probably not, but the point is we don't KNOW.

Reply to this comment

by bobebenson July 31, 2007 1:14 PM EDT

Hey folks, none of this would be a problem if Al Gore hadn't lost in his OWN STATE in 2000. If he would have carried his own state, Florida wouldn't have made any difference.

Reply to this comment

by firststate July 31, 2007 12:55 AM EDT

Two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich became executives in the two biggest voting system companies in the US. Bob Urosevich ran Diebold Election Systems, while his brother Todd is an executive at Election Systems & Software ES&S. Between them, the two brothers' companies account for 80% of the votes in the US.

There are noteworthy errors. In 2004, Franklin Co., Ohio Bush got 3893 extra votes from nowhere, Bush 4258 to Kerry 260, with 638 total votes in that precinct. In Florida, a machine allowed only 32,000 votes, after it hit 32,000 it started counting backward. In North Carolina 4,500 votes were lost after there was simply no more hard disk space available. According to USA Today, more than 20% of the machines tested failed to accurately record votes. These are problems with the machines, before any hacking or tampering.

Imagine a candidate getting an extra 3893 votes in just 1% of the precincts nationwide. Is it coincidence that the machines that gave bush the 3893 extra votes were by Diebold, whose CEO Walden O'Dell had promised to deliver Ohio's electoral votes for Bush?

Reply to this comment

by keithle1 July 31, 2007 12:21 AM EDT

As if a 100% hacker-proof voting machine could be made. Ah well. Back to the chads. "Greg, do you agree with me? Does it look like this person intended to vote for the American Communist Party?"

Reply to this comment

by gunownerdan July 30, 2007 7:36 PM EDT

Not only can electronic voting machines be easily hacked, they can also be secretly programmed.
Of course the government will try hard to keep you thinking your vote actually counts.....

Reply to this comment

by infidel_us July 30, 2007 7:22 PM EDT

and then the supreme court that was horrible. We cannot have that again.
Posted by starleo146 at 01:56 PM : Jul 30, 2007

We won't. We now have Stevens and Roberts! :) It went from 5-4 leaning left to 5-4 leaning right. nice of you to blame the lefties for siding with Bush! LOL

Reply to this comment

by infidel_us July 30, 2007 7:17 PM EDT

Ok, if a Republican wins in CA, we'll KNOW they were hacked! :)

Reply to this comment

by homespunlady July 30, 2007 6:47 PM EDT

There's been all sorts of games and finagling with the elections. This country has PROVEN that even IRAQ has a BETTER ELECTION PROCESS!!
Ironic really. America has INSISTED that there be POLL WATCHERS in third world elections.
There were some poll watchers in 2006 and guess what - they found some really interesting irregularities that they'd probably not even find in those third world countries. Nothing like America showing the world CORRUPTION rather than Democracy.

Reply to this comment

by harp1963 July 30, 2007 5:54 PM EDT

Great news for the Republican Party! Now they can change the results and win by hacking voter machines, thus continuing to promote the American way of honesty, integrity, and torture. The Republican Party....the moral party who is out for the least of our brother.

Reply to this comment

by adventurepa July 30, 2007 5:14 PM EDT

Diebold is one of the republicans biggest supporters. They are a corrupt company that cannot be trusted.
We need paper ballots that can be traced to each and every voter and vote.
If the republicans win anything in 08, it will be those voting machines that were tampered with.

Reply to this comment

by erasmus6 July 30, 2007 5:07 PM EDT

"I AGREE BUT DO WE HAVE THE OPTION IN ALL STATES TO ASK FOR A PAPER BALLOT" posted by starleo146

Don't ask, DEMAND paper ballots. And you need to start RIGHT NOW! Start phoning and writing letters and keep doing it until they all know you mean business! And if they don't do it then EVERYONE should be telling them they will refuse to vote. They need to throw those machines out. And if there is paper ballots, if it isn't handled properly you could still have a problem.

Someone in an earlier post said that they also had paper ballots but that some volunteer forgot to turn them in, they were in his trunk! I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life! The ballots shouldn't be left to the volunteer to take in, they should be picked up by someone assigned to do so and then they can be held accountable if something happens to them.
These ballots need to be protected every inch of the way from someone being able to tamper with them.

Reply to this comment

by starleo146 July 30, 2007 4:56 PM EDT

EVERY TIME I go lower to another post another question comes to mind. They better fix this so the American people know when they vote it is going to count. I will never forget the nightmare of the election year 2000. I knew Bush didn't win especially the state of Florida being the decision maker and the governor being Jeb Bush George Bush's brother. Will anyone forget that about the chads and then the supreme court that was horrible. We cannot have that again.

Reply to this comment

by starleo146 July 30, 2007 4:33 PM EDT

I'll just continue demanding a paper ballot when I vote as I always do.
Posted by lorinkundert at 12:20 AM : Jul 30, 2007

I AGREE BUT DO WE HAVE THE OPTION IN ALL STATES TO ASK FOR A PAPER BALLOT

Reply to this comment

by j-whitman July 30, 2007 4:25 PM EDT

With our voting machines now proven corrupt against the GOP's promises -- It's no surprise at all that the GOP only has more incompetent & corrupt as leading contenders for the Presidency of our country.

Reply to this comment

by huanaco July 30, 2007 4:07 PM EDT

NO WONDER THAT REPUBLICANS WON THE LAST TWO ELECTIONS. DEMOCRATS HAVE TO BE THE MOST STUPID PEOPLE IN AMERICA TO ALLOW THIS MACHINES . THE BEST THING TO DO IS TO GO BACK TO THE OLD SYSTEM FOR THE NEXT ELECTION. LET,S SEE WHERE THE SHIPS FALL.

Reply to this comment

by homespunlady July 30, 2007 3:37 PM EDT

So, in our small town Diebold pitched a ridiculously cheap proposition and the local city Administrator who "wrote his own tax" on the property owners of this city and GOT AWAY WITH IT in spite of an audit JUMPED AT THE CHANCE! when THERE'S SMALL TOWN CORRUPTION IT'S EASY TO rig an election.

Reply to this comment

by tucano2 July 30, 2007 3:25 PM EDT

Defective design of voting machines and procedures coupled with crooked political officials equals fraud - this may explain why California has two bozos for Senators. The country would be far better off selecting its Congress, Executive, and Judiciary branch officials using a blind lottery method once each 12 months.

Reply to this comment

by klingon69 July 30, 2007 2:47 PM EDT

In Canada, when we vote, we go into a large room where there are tables. There are two people sitting at each table.In front of them they have a list of all names. When you go to a table the first thing that happens is you show two pieces of ID of who you are and then they put a line through your name. They then give you a folded piece of paper with the candidates names on it. You then go into a booth and mark your choice and refold the paper. When you come back out NO ONE touches that paper but you. YOU put it through a narrow slot in a SEALED box.
Posted by erasmus6 at 02:53 PM : Jul 29, 2007

That's pretty much the same in my city in Texas.

Reply to this comment

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next

See all 50 Comments

Add a comment

Comment SUBMIT

Click here to add another comment.

The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

Comment reply

Submit Cancel

The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

Report offensive content:

If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CBSNews.com Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed.

Select type of offense:

Offensive: Sexually explicit or offensive language

Spam: Advertisements, commercial links, or repetitive posts

Disruptive posting: Flaming or offending other users

Illegal activities: Promote cracked software, or other illegal content

Off-topic: Commentary unrelated to the storyline

Comments (optional):

Report Cancel

E-mail this comment to a friend.

E-mail this to: (Separate multiple e-mail addresses with commas. Limited to 10 addresses.)

Your e-mail address:

Send me a copy of this message

Note: Your e-mail address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the e-mail and in case of transmission error. Neither your address nor the recipients's address will be used for any other purpose.

Add your own personal message: (Optional)

Hi, I found this user's comment on CBSNews.com and thought you might be interested in reading it. Send e-mail Cancel

[gunownerdan]

Not only are we forced to vote for either a dirty democrat or a rotten republican, the stupid voting machines are easily hackable or secretly programmed.
The next president will be whoever big-money wants and most Americans couldn't care less.

"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961

[venkata4--2008]

"Two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich became executives in the two biggest voting system companies in the US. Bob Urosevich ran Diebold Election Systems --
Imagine a candidate getting an extra 3893 votes in just 1% of the precincts nationwide. Is it coincidence that the machines that gave bush the 3893 extra votes were by Diebold, whose CEO Walden O'Dell had promised to deliver Ohio's electoral votes for Bush?
Posted by firststate at 09:55 PM : Jul 30, 2007"

That is exactly the point. Now these machines are qualified to be put 2008 November elections. Good job Diebold & 2008 is to be delivered .

[firststate]

BobEBenson missed the point. When you consider the problems the machines have had and then you add in the potential for hacking and tampering, you can't KNOW that Gore actually lost in any state. Diebold awarded 3,893 bonus votes for bush in one Ohio precinct. If that happened in just 100 precincts out of the thousands in each state, that would be 389,300 bonus bush votes per state. That number is greater than bush's margin of victory in most of the states he's supposed to have carried. Did that happen? Probably not, but the point is we don't KNOW.

[bobebenson]

Hey folks, none of this would be a problem if Al Gore hadn't lost in his OWN STATE in 2000. If he would have carried his own state, Florida wouldn't have made any difference.

[firststate]

Two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich became executives in the two biggest voting system companies in the US. Bob Urosevich ran Diebold Election Systems, while his brother Todd is an executive at Election Systems & Software ES&S. Between them, the two brothers' companies account for 80% of the votes in the US.

There are noteworthy errors. In 2004, Franklin Co., Ohio Bush got 3893 extra votes from nowhere, Bush 4258 to Kerry 260, with 638 total votes in that precinct. In Florida, a machine allowed only 32,000 votes, after it hit 32,000 it started counting backward. In North Carolina 4,500 votes were lost after there was simply no more hard disk space available. According to USA Today, more than 20% of the machines tested failed to accurately record votes. These are problems with the machines, before any hacking or tampering.

Imagine a candidate getting an extra 3893 votes in just 1% of the precincts nationwide. Is it coincidence that the machines that gave bush the 3893 extra votes were by Diebold, whose CEO Walden O'Dell had promised to deliver Ohio's electoral votes for Bush?

[keithle1]

As if a 100% hacker-proof voting machine could be made. Ah well. Back to the chads. "Greg, do you agree with me? Does it look like this person intended to vote for the American Communist Party?"

[gunownerdan]

Not only can electronic voting machines be easily hacked, they can also be secretly programmed.
Of course the government will try hard to keep you thinking your vote actually counts.....

[infidel_us]

and then the supreme court that was horrible. We cannot have that again.
Posted by starleo146 at 01:56 PM : Jul 30, 2007

We won't. We now have Stevens and Roberts! :) It went from 5-4 leaning left to 5-4 leaning right. nice of you to blame the lefties for siding with Bush! LOL

[infidel_us]

Ok, if a Republican wins in CA, we'll KNOW they were hacked! :)

[homespunlady]

There's been all sorts of games and finagling with the elections. This country has PROVEN that even IRAQ has a BETTER ELECTION PROCESS!!
Ironic really. America has INSISTED that there be POLL WATCHERS in third world elections.
There were some poll watchers in 2006 and guess what - they found some really interesting irregularities that they'd probably not even find in those third world countries. Nothing like America showing the world CORRUPTION rather than Democracy.

[harp1963]

Great news for the Republican Party! Now they can change the results and win by hacking voter machines, thus continuing to promote the American way of honesty, integrity, and torture. The Republican Party....the moral party who is out for the least of our brother.

[adventurepa]

Diebold is one of the republicans biggest supporters. They are a corrupt company that cannot be trusted.
We need paper ballots that can be traced to each and every voter and vote.
If the republicans win anything in 08, it will be those voting machines that were tampered with.

[erasmus6]

"I AGREE BUT DO WE HAVE THE OPTION IN ALL STATES TO ASK FOR A PAPER BALLOT" posted by starleo146

Don't ask, DEMAND paper ballots. And you need to start RIGHT NOW! Start phoning and writing letters and keep doing it until they all know you mean business! And if they don't do it then EVERYONE should be telling them they will refuse to vote. They need to throw those machines out. And if there is paper ballots, if it isn't handled properly you could still have a problem.

Someone in an earlier post said that they also had paper ballots but that some volunteer forgot to turn them in, they were in his trunk! I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life! The ballots shouldn't be left to the volunteer to take in, they should be picked up by someone assigned to do so and then they can be held accountable if something happens to them.
These ballots need to be protected every inch of the way from someone being able to tamper with them.

[starleo146]

EVERY TIME I go lower to another post another question comes to mind. They better fix this so the American people know when they vote it is going to count. I will never forget the nightmare of the election year 2000. I knew Bush didn't win especially the state of Florida being the decision maker and the governor being Jeb Bush George Bush's brother. Will anyone forget that about the chads and then the supreme court that was horrible. We cannot have that again.

[starleo146]

I'll just continue demanding a paper ballot when I vote as I always do.
Posted by lorinkundert at 12:20 AM : Jul 30, 2007

I AGREE BUT DO WE HAVE THE OPTION IN ALL STATES TO ASK FOR A PAPER BALLOT

[j-whitman]

With our voting machines now proven corrupt against the GOP's promises -- It's no surprise at all that the GOP only has more incompetent & corrupt as leading contenders for the Presidency of our country.

[huanaco]

NO WONDER THAT REPUBLICANS WON THE LAST TWO ELECTIONS. DEMOCRATS HAVE TO BE THE MOST STUPID PEOPLE IN AMERICA TO ALLOW THIS MACHINES . THE BEST THING TO DO IS TO GO BACK TO THE OLD SYSTEM FOR THE NEXT ELECTION. LET,S SEE WHERE THE SHIPS FALL.

[homespunlady]

So, in our small town Diebold pitched a ridiculously cheap proposition and the local city Administrator who "wrote his own tax" on the property owners of this city and GOT AWAY WITH IT in spite of an audit JUMPED AT THE CHANCE! when THERE'S SMALL TOWN CORRUPTION IT'S EASY TO rig an election.

[tucano2]

Defective design of voting machines and procedures coupled with crooked political officials equals fraud - this may explain why California has two bozos for Senators. The country would be far better off selecting its Congress, Executive, and Judiciary branch officials using a blind lottery method once each 12 months.

[klingon69]

In Canada, when we vote, we go into a large room where there are tables. There are two people sitting at each table.In front of them they have a list of all names. When you go to a table the first thing that happens is you show two pieces of ID of who you are and then they put a line through your name. They then give you a folded piece of paper with the candidates names on it. You then go into a booth and mark your choice and refold the paper. When you come back out NO ONE touches that paper but you. YOU put it through a narrow slot in a SEALED box.
Posted by erasmus6 at 02:53 PM : Jul 29, 2007

That's pretty much the same in my city in Texas.