It's the Ballot Definition File!!!

E-Voting Machines Short Circuit Election Transparency, But the Danger is Even Worse Than You May Realize

Guest Blogged by Michael Dean

The software most likely to steal elections is the BALLOT DEFINITION SOFTWARE loaded onto paper-based optical-scan and DRE (usually, touch-screen) voting machines in county elections offices across the U.S. just before the machines are sealed with security tape and transported to election polling locations.

And yet, the frightening reality is that there is little or no oversight of that software itself, nor of the people --- usually sub-contractors, who could be anyone from a non-U.S. citizen, to a criminal, to a political party operative --- who program that ballot definition software. Moreover, there is little or no testing of such software, despite the fact that it stores the ballot positions for all candidates and initiatives on every ballot, on every voting machine, and tallies the votes for all of them on election day.

For all of the concerns about election fraud, via the electronic voting systems in use across the nation today, and the eye on the source code for the software itself, few seem to have their eye on the ballot definition software, which can --- even on e-voting systems where the hardware, and main program software has been tested, certified, and audited --- succeed in flipping an election without detection, either by error, or on purpose.

Concerned yet? Read on...

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5971

Thanks to the author!

And, pardon Brad, but it's about time! :spank: :D :hi:


Here's an oldie but a goodie.

How to STEAL an Election -- for real!

by Bill Bored

Nov-14-05

snip

He wrote: "Both candidates’ party affiliations were listed correctly on the ballots used by voters." Proving that even voter-verified paper ballots don't mean shit unless they are audited or recounted by hand.

Unlike the hack we've seen on TV, in this real-world case, the precinct totals would have matched the central tabulator totals. And no one had to take apart any memory cards or reinvent the wheel to make this happen. It's just a feature of the software -- your tax dollars at work.

Now this is just a local judges' race in some place called Cumberland County, PA. But imagine if exactly the same thing happened in just the right counties in a few swing states to select Shrub in 2004, or even in 2000.

Somehow, this one was caught; the paper ballots were recounted. But for every one of these that are caught, there are probably a dozen more that aren't.

snip

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=401378

It must be tough for Brad to be scooped like this. Now he knows how NYT must feel.

Pretty soon they'll be calling his blog "The Gray Lady" or, even worse, "The Blog of Record."

Here's another quote from my NOVEMBER 2005 POST:
"They should start printing these ballot definition files on the sides of milk cartons! After all, they are missing and exploited right?"

Pithy huh?

Keep on bloggin'!

In our county, we were *comforted* by electronic voting experts that "glitches" on the ballot definition file had nothing to do with the actual tabulation of the votes. Not to worry, they said.

Well...

I don't know of anyone claiming that ""glitches" on the ballot definition file had nothing to do with the actual tabulation of the votes".

If anything, they'd want to blame any "glitch" on the BDF as it points more to the person programming a given election than the entire questionable e-voting infrastructure.

But at any rate, BDF screw-ups, screw-up tabulation.

to garner media attention or attention in general. An Election Was Stolen!!! may be significant and catchy enough, but when we explain the hundreds of ways that the elections are stolen in their boring detail, our audience is already asleep and/or overwhelmed just a little way into the discussion. It's a very sad situation. I'm sure Karl Rove likely giggles over this.

:cry:

here at DU, in spite of those who have made conversation so difficult. Occasionally, we can actually still have a conversation with people who have enough background and interest to follow what we have to say or answer a question instead of dozing off in the middle. ;) :grouphug:

The Mighty R Wurlitzer keeps repeating lies ad nauseum, creating a misinformation fog in an up is down delusional reality.

In the case of stealing elections, the strategy is "complexity," one of deloying a vast array of tactics.
The resultant complexity makes it impossible to pinpoint a specific factor that made the difference.
Start explaining how 12 different things combined to create a significant effect, and eyes roll and glaze over.

Meanwhile, the Wulitzer has us trained to accept 20 second sound bites. See the film Stupidity! Critical reasoning seems to have died.

the media. They train to kids to follow orders and take vacuous tests, instead of teaching them how to think critically. Then they play insipid garbage on TV sets and video games and other mind sapping media.

Bad diet and instant gratification habits train folks for 20 second sound bite attention spans.
Thanks for all you do to get the word out, L. Coyote.