Diebold voting machines source code leaked again

With just three weeks to go before elections here in Winnebago County, Wisconsin and across the United States, the security of the Diebold electronic voting machines is again being called into question.

According to an online article at PC World.com, source code for the Diebold Election Systems voting machines has been leaked for a second time in three years.

In 2003 the source code was uncovered by Diebold critic Bev Harris while she was conducting research using Google’s search engine. Later that year researchers at both Johns Hopkins and Rice universities analyzed the machine’s software and published a highly negative critique of the machines.

Following those incidents, Diebold said it introduced security enhancements, but now a similar source code has been leaked again, this time given to former Maryland state legislator Cheryl C. Kagan, who is a well-known critic of electronic voting and currently the Executive Director of the Carl M. Freeman Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in Olney, Maryland.

In addition to various news reports on the most recent leak, Avi Rubin, one of the researchers who published the 2003 Johns Hopkins and Rice universities’ report, has blogged about the most recent leak.

Here in Winnebago County, we have only used the Diebold machines in one election – the September primary – and there were a few minor glitches at that time, mostly related to the ballots approved by the State Election Board not being compatible with the Diebold machine. We were told those problems would be resolved by the November election, but it appears that the more serious issues of security still remain.

The Diebold touch screen machines were put in place to make in order to make Winnebago County compliant with the federal Help America Vote Act, a measure designed to make voting not only possible, but easier for persons with disabilities. There is one such touch-screen machine in each polling place throughout the county, but there is no requirement that anyone use them.

More information on the Diebold touch-screen machines can be found by doing an Internet search, but my co-host and UW-O communications professor, Dr. Tony Palmeri, has assembled a comprehensive list of articles on the various security flaws and concerns. That archive of articles can be found by going here.