One of the under reported stories of the week concerns the latest major security flaw in the Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine. The folks over at Freedom to Tinker have discovered that the cover lock (which controls access to the memory slot) on the AccuVote-TS is the same as that used on mini-bars, filing cabinets, and other general office equipment. Ed Felton notes:
We bought several keys from an office furniture key shop — they open the voting machine too. We ordered another key on eBay from a jukebox supply shop. The keys can be purchased from many online merchants.
As the Center for Information Technology Policy has shown, access to the memory on these machines opens the door to allow for simple vote tampering. It has been shown time and time again that these, and other, e-voting machines have been built with little attention to security or the stability needed to stand up under the pressures of a general election.
At one time, I believed that electronic voting could be made to function securely and effectively. I am quickly coming to the belief that the entire concept is flawed – either by corrupt contractors or faulty hardware. The illusion of a paper trail on e-voting machines offers little hope. There is much to recommend the old paper ballot, pencil and box that is still used in much of the world.
