Uncertified Software Installed on Ohio Voting Machines

[rankandfile]

http://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4766

Excerpt:

"The Free Press has learned that Election Systems and Solutions (ES&S) installed the software patches that will affect 4,041,056 registered voters, including those in metropolitan Columbus and Cleveland."

[(vikm)]

I keep saying only way Reps win is by stealing. This story isn't helping to allay those concerns. I just hope the Obama Admin isn't as collective a bunch of pussies as Gore was.

[Sam3]

That is very scary.

And stupid.

You don't put "experimental" software on production machines! Any IT manager who would do that in a company would get fired, especially if the "experimental" software caused the system to malfunction. This is utter stupidity at the least.

From a different article this quote worries me:

This uncertified and untested software could easily malfunction and corrupt votes on the central tabulation machines, thus destroying any electronic record of the actual votes by citizens. This "experimental" software, as outlined in the contract, has no security protocols. A "man in the middle" attack, ... could be directly facilitated by this untested and uncertified software installation.

[cbelt3]

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/politic...g-machines

A lawsuit filed the DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION demanding that Ohio not use systems in place for some time ? By the Green candidate for President ?

Yeah... no politics THERE. Are the claims accurate ? I'm not familiar with the technology, but it sounds like a change was mode to the reporting software. Reporting software I know. 99.99% of them absolutely, positively does not work the way that Fitrakis claims it does.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/2...n-Day-case

And, FWIW, this is a change to the middleware tablulation software. A challenge and recount would result in the a completely different system being used, up to and including a review of all paper logs from the touchscreen voting machines. (Most counties in Ohio use a machine that prints the citizen's vote on a paper log spool.)

[Lemon Drop]

Why do only a few states have this problem and the rest can manage to count votes without issue?

[cbelt3]

Lemon Drop-

It's not a problem. It's a lawsuit. The reported 'issues' are claims in the lawsuit.

Claims which the Ohio Secretary of State says are 'baseless'.

And depending on the media outlet, I see headlines from hysterical hyperbole "'Ohio Rigs The Vote' down to factual " 'Lawsuit by Green Party candidate claims problems with Ohio Election Tabulation Software'.

So I guess how important this is depends on whose propaganda you're reading.

[cbelt3]

FWIW. Federal Judge has REJECTED this spurious lawsuit.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/politic...g-machines

"
Frost said Bob Fitrakis, a Green Party candidate for Congress, presented only theories and opinions that the software might cause voting night irregularities.
"

So relax.