Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

ijr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 207 posts

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#161

Post by boomboomsubban »

lisivka wrote: post #130
boomboomsubban wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opposed to Bush's course, which only let Russia start one war. Plus,saying Russia started the Syrian war is a huge stretch, the US had already been involved for years.

War in Georgia was pretty fast, isn't? At other hand, Ukraine has USA guaranties[1], which were absolute guaranties before Obama, but now they are useless. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Securit...

The guarantees aren't useless due to Obama, the US followed the memorandum and sought UN Security counsel intervention. Russia broke the deal, what do you think the US should do about it?

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#162

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ascotan wrote: post #160
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing the point. Cute and Russia already benefited from the results of this election. A more divided Europe, check? A United States. that is looking to lessen its global role, check. A contentious, divisive circus of an election where a significant number of people have some doubts on the results, check. A splintering EU, check. A less unified NATO alliance with a weaker US role, under even more thre…

Trump hasn't even taken office yet so no blame can really be tied to him just yet. He's said quite a few silly things so far, but hasn't yet done any real damage. Most of the hysteria is being generated by the 24 cable news channels. I can't turn on CNN without another Trump-o-phobia headline on the screen. To be fair NATO/Europe have been having issues during the Obama administration. Brexit is just a symptom of a l…

For a guy that says "quite a few silly things" and "hasn't done any real damage yet" that sounds like quite a bit of confidence in skills and intelligence that has not been demonstrated. Picking battles?

How about: continue to expect silly things, and ultimately some real damage to become the new norm?

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#163

Post by makeapoint »

Zombieball wrote: post #33
hacker_9 wrote: post #3

Why do Americans use voting machines exactly? I mean, it just prints out their choice at the end right? What benefit do they actually gain from having pressed buttons instead of using a pen? It just seems to fuel the hacking conspiracy every time a president is elected. In the UK we turn up, go into the booth with the paper slip, and tick our choice with a pen. Then we fold it and post it into a container which later…

A former co-worker of mine wrote software for voting machines in Brazil. He described to me a few reasons why electronic voting machines are important. To be honest I forget the majority, but one story that stuck with me: One common scheme electronic voting machines help prevent is forced votes. A bad guy gets their hand on a single empty ballot and writes the name of the candidate he wants to win on it. He then come…

Each polling place can provide free "stump the chump" ballots that you can give back. So you throw the one they gave you away, fill out and submit your own, then hand them back a dummy ballot that won't get counted.

Or, alternatively, spend tons of money on electronic voting machines that allow the bad guy to game the system on a more massive scale without having to threaten as many people.

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#164

Post by lisivka »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #161
lisivka wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

War in Georgia was pretty fast, isn't? At other hand, Ukraine has USA guaranties[1], which were absolute guaranties before Obama, but now they are useless. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Securit...

The guarantees aren't useless due to Obama, the US followed the memorandum and sought UN Security counsel intervention. Russia broke the deal, what do you think the US should do about it?

USA should play in kinder garden, because Ukraine is able to stop Russia with almost no army, while USA cannot.

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#165

Post by makeapoint »

ecnahc515 wrote: post #10
sopooneo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why not scan-tron? It seems like that is the best of both worlds. Start with a simple physical paper that everyone can understand and audit as the primary record, but then have each voter feed their own directly into a scan machine that can tally and send counts in quickly? That's how we do it around me, and it seems like a strictly superior approach. What am I missing?

The scantron machines are expensive and it's not really feasible to have at every polling location. Lots of polling locations are at churches a d such anyways. Additionally, scantrons can be fairly slow depending on the machine.

Just to be clear, you are arguing that that scantron machines are expensive and not feasible at every polling location so instead we should provide dozens of more expensive electronic voting machines at each polling location?

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#166

Post by wcummings »

cwisecarver wrote: post #107
Procrastes wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Hacker_9. In Texas, where I vote, the machines don't even print paper. We just have to trust that the machine correctly recorded our vote. The reasons for the machines are, 1. cost cutting over manual counts, 2. profiteering by well connected companies, 3. And potentially making sure only the "right" votes count, although that part isn't proven. In California we were able to vote at home with a mail-in, paper ball…

If we have to use machines why wouldn't we just source two machines from rival vendors. One machine takes the vote from the voter through whatever method, records the vote and prints a receipt that clearly states that voters choices. Machine two reads the receipt in front of the voter and keeps a second tally of votes. The two tallies are then compared at the end of the night.

Where I voted (Massachusetts) you voted with a paper ballot, then watched a poll worker feed it into a machine which recorded it.

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#167

Post by School-Cotton »

kayamon wrote: post #129
Zombieball wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A former co-worker of mine wrote software for voting machines in Brazil. He described to me a few reasons why electronic voting machines are important. To be honest I forget the majority, but one story that stuck with me: One common scheme electronic voting machines help prevent is forced votes. A bad guy gets their hand on a single empty ballot and writes the name of the candidate he wants to win on it. He then come…

> One common scheme electronic voting machines help prevent is forced votes. A bad guy gets their hand on a single empty ballot and writes the name of the candidate he wants to win on it. He then comes to you and threatens you and your family. I'd be willing to bet money that this scenario has never, ever happened.

This technique is called the "Bulgarian train" and is alleged to have happened throughout the Balkans.

https://insajder.net/en/site/tema/794/

http://www.novinite.com/articles/120632/Bosnians+Name+Vote-B...

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#168

Post by rounce »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #24
Procrastes wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Hacker_9. In Texas, where I vote, the machines don't even print paper. We just have to trust that the machine correctly recorded our vote. The reasons for the machines are, 1. cost cutting over manual counts, 2. profiteering by well connected companies, 3. And potentially making sure only the "right" votes count, although that part isn't proven. In California we were able to vote at home with a mail-in, paper ball…

Mail-in ballots are the devil, they allow vote-buying. It happens with regularity that elections are annulled in ethnic enclaves in the UK over that. Elections don't have to be convenient, first of all they have to be safe.

I find it curious that you don't think this also happens in middle-England Tory stronghold constituencies, or certain middle-class London Labour ones for that matter.

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#169

Post by rounce »

joncrocks wrote: post #51
mavhc wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which elections were annulled?

There was a fairly well publicised incident in Tower Hamlets (part of London) where a local mayoral election was declared void for reasons including "Voting fraud: ballots were double-cast or cast from false addresses" [1] [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32428648 Was this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutfur_Rahman_(politician)#Fal...

The whole Luftur Rahman BS is (I think) more to do with the fact that he's a totally dodgy c&nt (as are quite possibly some of his close associates - juicy 'gossip' in Private Eye), not his ethnic or religious background. The long line of DodgyC&nts™ at TH has yet to be broken, even going back to "The-Good-Old-Days".

Re: Edward Snowden Demonstrates How Easy It Is to Hack a Voting Machine

#170

Post by freyr »

Jerry2 wrote: post #87
[deleted] wrote: post #23

[deleted]

Have you checked out Krugman's Twitter recently? The man has lost the plot after the election. And now he's pushing even more bullshit conspiracy theories. Sad.

I just checked it out. It seems like he was concerned about the possibility of vote tampering, and has since backed off. Not sad.
Post reply on HN