WP: Judge Rules in Favor Of Maryland Vote Machines

Judge Rules in Favor Of Md. Vote Machines

By Eric Rich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 2, 2004; Page A03


An Anne Arundel County judge yesterday rejected a challenge to the state's touch-screen voting machines, saying they are more accurate than the paper ballots plaintiffs are seeking to make optional for the November elections.

Circuit Court Judge Joseph P. Manck called the concern that the electronic machines might be vulnerable to tampering "a very real fear," but he found that Maryland officials had "taken all reasonable steps to protect the integrity of the voting process."

The ruling was a victory for the state's embattled elections administrator, Linda H. Lamone, who has championed electronic voting and was a defendant in the lawsuit. "I'm gratified that the court has ratified our confidence in the voting system," Lamone said. "As the court said, with all the protections we've put in place, my firm belief is that the voters can have confidence in the integrity of the elections process."

Lead plaintiff Linda Schade said the citizens group she co-founded, TrueVoteMD.org, would use the ruling to galvanize Maryland voters to closely monitor the November elections, which she predicted would not go smoothly. "I am very disappointed that Maryland voters will be forced to vote on machines that we believe are illegal under Maryland law and that are clearly very insecure," Schade said.

Ryan P. Phair, who represented Schade and the other plaintiffs, said he would file an appeal today with the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54409-2004Sep1.html

Our worst fears:
Submitted by Bev Harris on Sat, 08/28/2004 - 18:52. Investigations
(Due to its importance, this story is pinned to the top. Scroll down for new daily reports). By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location, a second set of votes is created in the Diebold central tabulator, a program installed in 1,000 locations, which controls both paper ballots and touch-screens, each system handling up to a million votes at a time. Full story

After invoking the 2-digit trigger, this second set of votes can be changed so that it no longer matches the correct set of votes. The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set.

It takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate the risks. It is not too late to do so, and the corrective measures are relatively simple.

This program is not "stupidity" or sloppiness. It was designed and tested over a series of a dozen version adjustments, and has been in place for four years.
» read more

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

:scared::mad:

I'm completely unaware of legal possibilities, as tho' from another planet.

It would be appropriate to be able to beat this decision.


Joseph P. Manck the Wise

Almost a given. I'd like to be proved wrong but I think Bunypants* is going to "miraculously sweep" all Diebold/Electronic States.

Maybe we still have a chance in states like CA where Diebold is only in a fifth of the counties, but any state with full electronic "voting"...well I'd like to be wrong but I would count those in the Bunnypants* column already