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Electronic Voting Subject to Fraud?
Aired July 25, 2003 - 15:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Well, remember those butterfly ballots in the chaos from election 2000? Well, they've been replaced in many states by computer-card voting. But don't think that's the end of the controversy.
Our Brian Cabell explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you thought the fiasco with hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads in the presidential election in Florida in 2000 dictated a move away from paper ballots and toward electronic voting, you might want to think again.
Johns Hopkins University researchers, after studying the computer code for Diebold Election Systems electronic equipment has asserted, the equipment is vulnerable to massive fraud.
AVI RUBIN, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: I would say a 15-year-old computer science student or someone who is a hobbyist in computers could sit in a garage and manufacture smart cards that could be sold to people and give them the ability to vote unlimited number of times.
CABELL: Researchers got the Diebold code after it was posted anonymously on a public Web site earlier this year; 33,000 Diebold voting stations were used in 2002, including in Georgia, where Republican Sonny Perdue and Saxby Chambliss upset the Democratic incumbents for governor and U.S. senator. There is no evidence any fraud took place. Diebold insists its voting equipment is secure, but confirms it's studying the research.
MIKE JACOBSEN, DIEBOLD SPOKESMAN: We really want to pore through out and make sure that we're covering our bases in terms of the issues being uncovered and assuage any public concerns that may be out there.
CABELL: Approximately one-fifth of all U.S. voters now use electronic ballots manufactured by 19 different and competing companies. The trend, especially after the chad crisis, has been toward more electronic voting. Requiring only a touch, it seems easier and more accurate than conventional balloting. Now, however, state elections officials may want to take a second look.
CINDY COHN, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: I think it's important now for the companies who have sold these voting machines to the various counties to step forward and demonstrate to the public that the kinds of problems that were found by the Hopkins study -- and, frankly, there are other reports out there as well -- that don't exist in their systems.
CABELL: The Johns Hopkins researchers emphasize only that electronic voting fraud is possible. They do not claim that any has occurred so far.
Brian Cabell, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 25, 2003 - 15:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Well, remember those butterfly ballots in the chaos from election 2000? Well, they've been replaced in many states by computer-card voting. But don't think that's the end of the controversy.
Our Brian Cabell explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you thought the fiasco with hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads in the presidential election in Florida in 2000 dictated a move away from paper ballots and toward electronic voting, you might want to think again.
Johns Hopkins University researchers, after studying the computer code for Diebold Election Systems electronic equipment has asserted, the equipment is vulnerable to massive fraud.
AVI RUBIN, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: I would say a 15-year-old computer science student or someone who is a hobbyist in computers could sit in a garage and manufacture smart cards that could be sold to people and give them the ability to vote unlimited number of times.
CABELL: Researchers got the Diebold code after it was posted anonymously on a public Web site earlier this year; 33,000 Diebold voting stations were used in 2002, including in Georgia, where Republican Sonny Perdue and Saxby Chambliss upset the Democratic incumbents for governor and U.S. senator. There is no evidence any fraud took place. Diebold insists its voting equipment is secure, but confirms it's studying the research.
MIKE JACOBSEN, DIEBOLD SPOKESMAN: We really want to pore through out and make sure that we're covering our bases in terms of the issues being uncovered and assuage any public concerns that may be out there.
CABELL: Approximately one-fifth of all U.S. voters now use electronic ballots manufactured by 19 different and competing companies. The trend, especially after the chad crisis, has been toward more electronic voting. Requiring only a touch, it seems easier and more accurate than conventional balloting. Now, however, state elections officials may want to take a second look.
CINDY COHN, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: I think it's important now for the companies who have sold these voting machines to the various counties to step forward and demonstrate to the public that the kinds of problems that were found by the Hopkins study -- and, frankly, there are other reports out there as well -- that don't exist in their systems.
CABELL: The Johns Hopkins researchers emphasize only that electronic voting fraud is possible. They do not claim that any has occurred so far.
Brian Cabell, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
