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Hacking Democracy

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Just a little bit more about elections. You can check out HBO’s special Hacking Democracy in its entirety on Google Video. (The total run time is about an hour and twenty minutes, just so you know.)

The documentary covers a lot of the known problems with electronic voting and focuses on how much of what’s going on is hidden from public view. You can read HBO’s synopsis here.

Also, check out Salon’s coverage and a good round-up of links from Bruce Schneier.

My own extremely brief two cents: How long do we think Diebold would stay in business if their ATMs had the same kinds of gaping security flaws that their voting machines do?

4 thoughts on Hacking Democracy

  1. Technical people – the good ones, the ones who are passionate about technology, and many of whom read Schneier before it was cool – have been saying this for years. Seriously. I’m surprised it took this long to reach the semi-mainstream consciousness (except that (a) I still don’t think it’s really hit the mainstream consciousness, it’s just hit the educated liberals who care about politics consciousness, and (b) I’m not really *surprised* when anything like this stays in the domain of the techie, I just think it took longer than it should to become known)

  2. Pingback: » Blog Archive » View Hacking Democracy Online!

  4. I’m one of those technical people who has worked in secure computing for a decade, much of it with Visa and Citibank. I think ALL the senior people in security agree: there is NO place for electronic voting in democratic elections. It is not a matter of having ATM like security in the voting both; it is about paper ballots, felt pens, and scanners being the best, most secure, cheapest, most convenient method of casting and counting votes.

    The last thing an engineer wants to do is over-design a system and create training and maintenance headaches. Over-design ALWAYS introduces additional security concerns as well. There is absolutely NOTHING that electronic voting offers that is in any sense an advantage. State-by-state the country is being sold snake oil.

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