"Food For Fraud Thought" on Machine Fraud (RE Madsen theory) [View All]

Clearly, there are differences and similarites between gaming machines (such as slots) and different types of voting "machines".

We must be careful to distinguish between actual voting machines, and those computer systems used for tabulation. The actual voting machines are not hooked up to modems, while the tabulation systems are. Since the manipulation of tabulation computers has been discussed in some depth, this message focuses on stand alone systems. A scenario for fixing stand alone machines is discussed below, with the conclusion that it is unlikely. As such, this method of hacking is considered highly unlikely. It is offered as "food for fraud thought" for others, as it might stimulate some thinking along other lines.

The manipulation of stand-alone gaming machines is proven ; a good example is the murder of Larry Volk (killer confessed after Christian conversion) cited below. In this case, the "cheating code" must be preloaded with, and hidden within, the "honest code". The possibilities here are endless: a simple example is to add a vote for Bush for every 20 votes for Kerry. This is very crude, easy to detect, and not very flexible.

A more elegant way to hack stand-alone machines is to embed some code that is only invoked by a special entry sequence, somewhat like a combination lock. For example, if and only if the "voter" clicked on the Bush icon and then hit reset 3 times, and then clicked on the Kerry icon and hit reset 5 times, the computer would react as if Bush received 256 votes.

Without access to actual code in the machine, it is impossible to detect if such hidden "features" are in the machine. On the other hand, if this scam were perpetrated, there are hundreds if not thousands of machines sitting around now with the stealth code still embedded in them. It would require a fair number of agents who would have to be trained to rig the votes, and any one of them could blow the whistle on the whole operation. machines. It would likely result in a large disparity within a precinct from one machine to the other. As mentioned above, this particular scenario is not very plausible.

An alternate way to fix the machines is to have a "combination lock" that allows both the addition of votes as described above, as well as a way to accept votes after the polls have closed (are entries time-stamped ?) Then one could have enough lockdowns at polling places to allow a few poll workers to add votes to the machines, and then print and sign new tapes. This may be what Bev Harris witnessed in process.


Does anyone out there have other ideas ???

A Blogger looks at the relationship between gaming & voting machines July 1, 2004

http://www.rojisan.com/blog/2004/07/american_coin_vs_diebold.html

american coin vs diebold
(excerpt)
Back in december, i left myself a note to do some homework and make this comparison... with the election now just five months away, i guess it's time to get this on the record. this won't be as fully-developed as i might've hoped, but that's what comments and links are about. the comparison between slot machines and voting machines has been made before, but i wanted to tie the two companies together in a sort of risk-assesment way.

In 1990, larry volk was killed shortly before he was to give testimony on how he programmed video gaming (as in gambling) machines for american coin - programmed them to cheat. nearly a decade later, the story got hot again with the confession of his killer. the story is great stuff for crime drama and mafia stories, and that's been covered well already, but that's not what interests me.