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e-voting open to manipulation, says report

A fresh study in Florida has found that even optical scan voting systems can be hacked into, which is causing quite a bit of concern.

If you thought the advent of electronic voting machines has ushered in an era of free and fair elections, you may not be entirely right. A fresh study in Florida has found that they can be hacked into, after an independent review of optical scan and touch-screen devices made by Diebold Election Systems, one of the largest voting machine vendors in the US and a major supplier of gear to Florida.

This has triggered concern that the ‘flawed’ devices could compromise the outcome of the presidential primary elections in Florida next year. Reportedly, the document noted that “official memory cards in the optical scan machines could easily be exchanged with ones altering the vote count”.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning has written to the company asking them to fix the vulnerabilities cited in the report by August 17 or face denial of vendor's certification.

[ Via engadget ] [ via pcworld ]