Sequoia voting gear allows for ballot stuffing, calls it a "feature"
By Cyrus Farivar 
posted Nov 3rd 2006 10:25PM
posted Nov 3rd 2006 10:25PM
There's an old adage in election-year politics: "Vote early, and vote often." While that second part is usually meant as a little humorous jab, Sequoia Voting Systems apparently wasn't in on the joke. See, in California and other states, some polling places have these e-voting devices (made by Sequoia) known as AVC Edge voting machines, and each machine comes with a yellow button located on the back of each device. The button is designed as a manual backup, which activists claim allows people to vote as many times as they like. Fear not, though: Sequoia will resubmit the system for certification (after the election), and doesn't really consider this button to be a flaw at all. As Michelle Shafer, vice president of communications for Sequoia, told internetnews.com: "It's a deliberate back-up feature to prevent the Edge from having a single point of failure -- an inoperable card activator -- at a polling location and preventing voters from casting their ballots." Plus, Shafer continued, even if someone did push the button, the machine issues a loud beep when it's pressed -- obviously a completely foolproof system. The California Secretary of State's office has already issued instructions to poll workers to listen for the fateful beeping, so voters can rest assured that no one will try this hack. Goodness knows what will happen if a bunch of voters come in with pagers that all go off simultaneously, though. [Via TechDirt]
I'm adamantly opposed to electronic voting. Like all things networked, it will never be 100% secure and will only lead to more regulation of the internet. I'm sure the EFF has some literature on the subject if anyone is interested.
I, for one, welcome our future tyrant overlords "elected" through electronic voting systems.
wait till they give a machine wifi XFD
What's to stop me from muffling the speaker, though?
worried about the beep - just plug in headphones - there's a headphone jack!
here's the 'complicated' 5 step process
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/44823.html
Americans should be up in arms over all of these voting fiascos - Democracy is being stolen from you and the response has been "lukewarm" at best - don't you care?
Good luck next Tuesday, you're going to need it...
~%50 of Americans are too busy sitting by the border in their lawn chairs while using their binoculars to stop terrorists from entering the country. And when they get tired of that, they start babbling about the sanctity of marriage and that "evolution is just a theory."
For the latest info on this and other electronic voting systems and problems
PLEASE check out: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
It is scary what is happening out there right under all of our noses.
I actually just voted early here in Nevada and saw the button you mentioned on the back of the sequoia machine. I asked one of the guys if he knew what it was; he didn't have a clue. I left the voting machine with the uneasy feeling as if my vote didn't count worth a damn. God I miss the good old paper days!
These people should be thrown in jail for election fraud. They are violating state and federal laws with these idiot moves.
"These people should be thrown in jail for election fraud."
Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen as long as the people committing these crimes are also making the laws.
You've got to be kidding.
Pen and paper. Pen and Paper.
What's a pager?
It's funny to watch people up in arms over the possibility of election fraud. Meanwhile it's been there in one form or another all along. America is not the country you think it is. It's a corrupt dark empire bent on war and profit. Read Michael Parenti's book, Against Empire. or nearly any book by Noam Chomsky. Open your eyes, kids.
Sequoia Voting Systems was purchased by a company from Venezeula that in turn is funded by the government(Hugo Chavez) follow the link
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/washington/29ballot.html?ei=5065&en=e0c8ab46eb7f870b&ex=1162789200&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&adxnnlx=1162123697-fGdgFeTtCKTTCxcnenqAsQ
As I recall, the "vote early, vote often" more specifically refers to ballot-box stuffing in 1960 in Chicago, where there was rampant election corruption... including registering the deceased and buying the votes of the homeless.
Yeah, closed, proprietary, unaccountable electronic voting is a threat to the very foundation of democracy.
Some time ago, the outcome of an election was determined by the number of voters each candidate candidate had. Nowadays, it is determined by the competency and the number of hackers each candidate has.
Democracy is so has been! Welcome to the hackerocracy!
@cade: so does this mean that Bush was "elected" thanks to Hugo Chavez???