Comments on: Voter databases must be secured, report says

Computer scientists sound privacy, security alarms about new voter registration databases required by federal law.

[Eskiegirl302]

I Hope they all....

Get it done and in place in time for the elections this fall. Which states have not complied yet? How close are they to being secured? Why are they not done yet? When I go to vote, I damn sure want to know that someone is not going implement something that I have/have not input. What is the sense of voting when someone can change the results??!!

[Fogwatcher 18]

Incompetent federal-state division of tasks

Many counties and states rushed to buy new machines for their voters before the federal standards were even in place. These public entities were promised products that would meet the federal and state certification proceedures when they were devised. The companies have had trouble meeting these standards, except where the standards were written to fit the equipment! A two year extention of the deadline would allow companies to meet the deadlines without cutting corners. No such extension is expected from Congress, so watch out for fraud in the next election cycle.

Some of the pink-collar workers who have made these million dollar decisions seem to have relied entirely on the sales force information to make their decisions. No outside research at all! (I wouldn't even buy a computer for home that way.) Other decision makers are political appointees who are mainly concerned with delivering the votes to the party which put them in office.

The Data-Vote system was 70's technology that continued to work when maintained properly. Some of the punch card systems (including the "Butterfly Ballot") didn't work because they had not been cleaned out after elections - for thirty years. Office paper punches need to be cleaned more often thatn that. The Data-Vote system is no longer supported by the manufacturer, so my county must buy something that is.

[HarDrive]

College professors should stick to teaching

Unfortunately we still have a boatload of people who never left school for the real world, and just because they have DR in front of their name, think that everyone should drop to their knees when they speak. The "problems" with voting systems are the same kind they ran around panicking about during the Y2K scam (remember how life as we know it was going to cease on 1/1/2000?). These self-serving "experts" use these issues to gain notoriety, gain speaking honorariums, and gain publishing deals to feed their already massive egos!

I'd prefer they go back to the ivory towers of academia and ponder why it is that if they are so well respected, they are paid so poorly. Remember, those that CAN do, those that CAN'T teach...

[Iohagh]

Protecting Democracy

I think the same Federally mandated technology that protects our depositors accounts could be used. That is four factor authentication with offline voting ID readers to bring privacy and accuracy to us. That's what I think. Ciao now.

[wbenton]

Duuuuuhhhh! This is a no-brainer!

This is definately a NO-BRAINER!!!

What I would like to know is:

WHY IN THE WORLD HAS "Nobody's done this kind of analysis," YET???

I would love to see a follow-up story with the answer(s) to that question!

Have these people never heard of database manipulation? Are they not aware of all the ways to manipulate the data... including a tainted Operating System?

Walt