Electronic Vulnerability

FAQ – Why Is Voting Different Than Scanning A Can Of Peas?

By Luther Weeks on February 22, 2008

[Greenwich Registrar of Voters] Musca said she had confidence in the machines’ accuracy. There’s no way you can make a mistake. You color in your ovals and the machine reads it,” she said. “It’s as good as scanning their can of peas (at the supermarket). If they trust the price on their can of peas, […]

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Statewide errors threaten Nov. election

By Luther Weeks on February 20, 2008

Update: At the GAE hearing in West Hartford, Gail Stempien, Assistant Registrar in Simsbury pointed to the failure of the voter registration system as an example of why Connecticut should not program our own memory cards. (Earlier, CTVotersCount member Denise Weeks had testified to the benefits of programming the memory cards within Connecticut, followed by […]

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Norwalk GAE Hearing

By Luther Weeks on February 18, 2008

Testimony submitted and posted at GAE site. Once again I have been procrastinating a bit in writing up the Norwalk GAE Public Hearing held last Thursday. The tone of the hearing was much different than the one in Norwich. This blog has a separate entry with my formal testimony. In Norwich, for the most part, […]

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Talk Nation Radio – Fix Security Issues By Nov

By Luther Weeks on February 18, 2008

Another excellent Talk Nation Radio <read listen> Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, Professor Alex Shvartsman, Deputy Secretary of State Lesley Mara, and Connecticut Registrars discuss problems with the voting machines and security protocols set up to use them. The Deputy Secretary of State Lesley Mara reported nineteen voting machine failures last year, but at least some failures […]

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Two Companies’ False Statements – Should Both Be Of Concern?

By Luther Weeks on February 12, 2008

Company #1 keeps some of us warm: Breaks the law and hides information from consumers. Company #2 is the state’s sole source for maintaining our democracy: Previously under SEC and DOJ investigation, now admits hiding financial woes. This is the second time in recent months that utilities have been caught red handed and the second […]

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e-Democracy Symposium – Recounting/Auditing By Machine – The Devil Is In The Details

By Luther Weeks on February 8, 2008

Yesterday I attended the spring symposium at the UConn Law School by the Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal: e-Democracy: Democratic Values In A Digital Age. There were three panels: Campaigning On The Web The Mechanics of Voting Political Speech and the Internet I found all three very interesting. Christine Stuart has an excellent article on […]

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ComputerWorld Interview With Rep. Rush Holt

By Luther Weeks on February 4, 2008

Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) is a physicist who has been working for some four years to provide integrity and confidence in voting. While waiting for a longer term solution, he has introduced an emergency bill, H.R. 5056 to encourage states to move to paper ballots and sound audits in time for the 2008 presidential election. […]

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TalkNationRadio: Dr. Shvartsman Outlines Memory Card Failures

By Luther Weeks on February 1, 2008

We have covered the memory card issues and the reports from Dr. Shvartsman’s team at the UConn VoTeR Center <here> and <here>. This week, Dori Smith of TalkNationRadio interviewed Dr. Shvartsman <audio and transcript>. The UConn reports reported 3.5% and 8% failure rates. These are outrageous. Not only do they represent a huge and unacceptable […]

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Doth The Courant Protest Too Much?

By Luther Weeks on January 11, 2008

Perhaps there is one thing worse than a voting system we cannot trust, outsourced, and unaudited. It is a media we cannot trust, downsized, outsourced, bent only on profits, oligarchical, and failing to actually do the work necessary to do the research and reporting necessary for democracy.

Posted in CT, Electronic Vulnerability, National, Other Editorials | 1 Response

DemocracyNow! Interviews New York Times Author

By Luther Weeks on January 10, 2008

<read, listen, view> More scary and devastating than reading the article in the New York Times Magazine. Still does not fully address the similar issues of optical scan which are only solved with sufficient post-election audits. Yes, recounts of the paper from optical scan is vary reassuring, yet recounts are seldom done, even in cases […]

Posted in Costs, Electronic Vulnerability, National, Other Editorials, Skulduggery and Errors