L.A. County (largest county in USA) vote system vulnerable to hackers

Written by: F. Gluck on Nov 25, 2007 12:43 AM EST

With the CA SoS decertifying DRE Touchscreens & now finding vulnerability with the InkaVote Plus Precinct Ballot Recorder, and a new study by studycaliforniaballots.org which has found that the old MicroTallySystem central tabulator to be unacceptably inaccurate, it is time to retrieve elections from the corporations and from computer technology and return them to the citizens gy reinstituting old fashioned Hand Counted Paper Ballots at the Precinct Level!

L.A. County vote system vulnerable to hackers
Secretary of state's report also finds potential for fraud with InkaVote Plus system.
By Harrison Sheppard, From our Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 11/23/2007 09:44:54 PM PST
http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_7544866

SACRAMENTO - Consultants for Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Friday they found several flaws in Los Angeles County's voting system that could leave it vulnerable to fraud or electronic hacking.

The report found that seals on boxes used to carry the system hardware could be reopened and then resealed without detection, allowing the machinery open to tampering, and that some password-protected systems could be hacked with available cracker programs. There were also cases where encrypted files containing sensitive data could be decrypted.

The study was performed as part of Bowen's "top-to-bottom" review of voting systems throughout the state. Los Angeles County's InkaVote Plus system is the last to be studied, because vendor Election Systems & Software failed to provide information to Bowen's consulting team on time earlier this year.

In August,

Bowen decertified the InkaVote Plus system for use in the February presidential primary because of the missing information. It will likely be several weeks before she decides whether to recertify it with new security conditions.

Bowen's office was still analyzing the independent report late Friday and could not comment on its substance.

"On Monday, the Secretary of State's office will hold a public hearing to hear comments from Los Angeles county, the vendor and any other concerned voters," said Bowen spokeswoman Nicole Winger. "And then she will take the independent team reports and all public
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ments under advisement, and make a decision on whether or not to recertify this system in the coming weeks."

Los Angeles County bought the InkaVote Plus system for $25 million and first used it in the November 2006 election. The system is only one component of the county's entire vote-counting process, and it is used for new federal requirements to assist the blind and disabled and to catch errors by voters in marking their ballots.

Bowen's decision to decertify came after she reviewed several other major voting systems in California. In all the other cases, she decertified them, but then immediately recertified with new security conditions.

Dean Logan, chief deputy to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack, said the office believes the system works well.

"Used in conjunction with our secure central ballot counting system and under comprehensive chain of custody and use procedures, we are confident that L.A. County voters are well-served by the InkaVote Plus voting system," Logan said in a written statement.

"We will use the information from the test reports to improve and enhance our procedures as appropriate for the 2008 elections."

harrison.sheppard@dailynews.com, 916-446-6723

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