MIT: Hackers could alter ballots in widely used voting app
Source: AP
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) An internet voting app that has been used in pilots in West Virginia, Denver, Oregon and Utah has vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to change a persons vote without detection, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The analysis of the Voatz app, which has mostly been used for absentee voters and overseas military personnel, found that attackers could alter, stop or expose how an individual has voted.
Voting security experts have long argued that online voting is dangerously insecure.
We all have an interest in increasing access to the ballot, but in order to maintain trust in our elections system, we must assure that voting systems meet the high technical and operation security standards before they are put in the field, Daniel Weitzner, an MIT scientist who oversaw the report, said Thursday.
Read more: https://apnews.com/708a578811bfdcffec1f2cfbae3cc063
All forms of electronic voting are vulnerable to hacking. Paper ballots might still be the most secure method of providing secure election results. Including a reproducible audit of the vote tallies and the legitimate winners.
MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)2naSalit
(86,843 posts)And call your Sec of State to make sure they know you are upset about the security of your state's voting system.
live love laugh
(13,161 posts)tamper with paper ballots tooeven letting ballots sit at the post office or in locked rooms, uncounted.
usaf-vet
(6,217 posts)SAFE Act requires that all voting machines involve the use of an individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballot of the voters vote.
Yet despite expert consensus, political activism, and availability of funding, opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate makes it unlikely that the SAFE Act or any paper ballot standard will be implemented by 2020. With no method to verify votes in the case of software or hardware failure, paperless voting machines represent a large vulnerability. Failure to act on election security risks not only a loss of trust in the next election, but in the democratic process as a whole.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212985919
yellowdogintexas
(22,280 posts)that all the ballots drop into. When we close the polls, we zip it up and seal it then record the seal numbers, and it goes to the drop point with all the voting equipment, which is also sealed and recorded.
Votes are only stored on paper, and the machine used for casting the votes has no memory - each voter keys in an access code, makes his/her choices and prints the ballot. The access codes can only be used once. The next voter may be pulling up a completely different ballot since we have voting centers and you can vote anywhere in the county on election day
If we dared show up at the drop center with those seals broken or without the suitcase our asses would be in a sling.
ElementaryPenguin
(7,800 posts)The first requirement is easy hackability.
This app will undoubtedly be the app of choice for all states with GOP governors!
yellowdogintexas
(22,280 posts)In order to get voting centers, we had to get a system which would allow any ballot form in the county to be displayed, self print the ballots for scanning and allow election workers to view the entire county's voter registration log.
This allows us to vote at any precinct on election day, and we are not chained to the one in our home precinct. It is very nice. Our voters love it.
No apps being used here.
diva77
(7,667 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,992 posts)May be slow, but when it comes to honest elections, No. 2 Pencil and Paper work best.
Amaryllis
(9,526 posts)Any vulnerability would be in the tabulators used to count the votes but that is the case with any state using paper ballot and electronic tabulators.
Kablooie
(18,641 posts)And all anyone can do about it is grumble about foul play.
I have very little confidence in the next election because Trump will do every illegal thing possible to win and has the whole Russian hacking complex to help him.
Also, with all these digital machines being used in the next election, (Here in Los Angeles we will be using a brand new electronic system for the first time.), it's likely to be complete debacle anyway.
And if Trump wins he will prevent any investigations so there will be no recourse.