[extropy-chat] Politics: US talks of suspending elections

[Harvey Newstrom]

On Monday, July 12, 2004, at 04:20 pm, Mike Lorrey wrote:

> I imagine that the 'world leaders'that Kerry has the secret support of
> (China? Syria? Palestine? France? Iran? North Korea?) would love to see
> a major attack in a polling area which will be of strategic importance
> in the election, like Florida, where records will be so badly damaged
> by an attack that the entire state will not be able to be counted at
> all in the electoral college, leading to a hung jury so that we are
> unable to declare a winner in the election, a situation that the
> Constitution is not built to handle. If one is declared by the Supreme
> Court, the losing side will make further declarations (this time real)
> of illegitimate reign and the US will lose further confidence on the
> world stage.

No need to wait for a foreign government or terrorists to do this, 
Mike.  Our own government (the current administration and the 
republican party) are already on it!

They have already installed electronic voting machines in Florida (and 
elsewhere around the country) that have NO VOTING RECORDS.  Their 
"solution" to the recount problem is to eliminate all voting records 
and log files.  Simple.  No vote counts or recounts are possible.  All 
we have to do is trust that whatever numbers come out of the machines 
are accurate, with no independent verification allowed.  They are even 
fighting lawsuits to allow security experts to validate the machines, 
claiming that their software is proprietary and secret.  In cases where 
machines were patched without permission (like in Arnold's California 
election), or where security requirements can't be met in time (like in 
Maryland where I am currently working), the elections proceed without 
following the required laws and regulations.  There simply is no choice 
or alternate plan available.  No accountability exists now.  The voting 
records have already been destroyed in advance by our own government.

(I don't know if people have heard about this, but it is extremely big 
news among security professionals.  One security professional society 
even questioned whether it was ethical for any of its members to 
endorse or cooperate with such elections because they violate every 
tenet of computer security we try to promote.)

--
Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, CISA, CISM, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC
<HarveyNewstrom.com>