Statewide electronic voting delayed (Ohio)

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12/03/03

Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - Ohio's sweeping review of electronic voting machines turned up so many potential security flaws in the systems that the state's top elections offi cial has called off deploying them in March.

The detailed findings confirmed what academics, computer scientists and voter advocates across the country have said for months: Electronic voting systems are prime targets for manipulation by anyone from expert computer hackers to poll workers to individual voters.

Diebold Election Systems, the Ohio-based company that has taken the most heat for potential flaws in the security of its machines, was not singled out in the review. The machines of the three other companies selected during Ohio's extensive certification process - Sequoia, Hart InterCivic, and Election Systems & Software - were also found to carry risks.

Diebold led the pack in the number of serious flaws in its systems, but the technology of the other companies also was found to be riddled with problems.

The review confirmed a laundry list of security flaws that some observers had tried to dismiss as merely alarmist. Among the findings:

Voter "smart cards" inserted in the machines could be deciphered or counterfeited and used to cast illegal votes.

Poll supervisors' passwords could be easily guessed and used to manipulate election results or end polling early. Diebold, for example, has the same password - 1111 - nationwide, and investigators were able to guess it in two minutes.

Election results could be unencrypted and intercepted during transmission.

Many scenarios exist in which someone without the proper authority could enter the systems - with the flick of a switch or the use of a laptop PC - and change results.