As Primaries Near, Electronic Voting Security Fears Linger

Posted by Carl Weinschenk on December 18, 2007

It’s a bit chilling to even think that perhaps the single element that most defines us as a nation — our system of free and fair elections — is at stake because of electronic security.

It is.

Of course, the 2000 election is remembered for what happened in Florida. It was not a primarily a question of electronic security, however. Rather, the actual voting issues (as distinguished from the litigation the voting caused) mostly focused on what constituted a legitimate paper ballot. Four years later in Ohio, the action focused on both the physical — a disparity in access to machines in historically Democratic and Republican districts — and fears that the machines had been tampered with.

On Dec. 7, the Ohio Secretary of State released a 334-page PDF on voting systems in the state. The report was prepared by the Evaluation and Validation of Election-Related Equipment, Standards and Testing (EVEREST), Penn State, the University of Pennsylvania and WebWise Security. The results suggest a system so flawed that it’s surprising that anyone’s vote is counted accurately.

SNIP...The primary season will start soon after the New Year. All Americans — Democrats, Republicans, Independents and members of small parties — should be concerned about the state of electronic voting. The most frightening part is that the problems seem far deeper than the sporadic attempts to confront them.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/top/?p=242

in order to bring in the hava law which mandates the use of electronic voting machines.
So they are really one and the same issue.