San Francisco - In response to today's release of research about critical security flaws in e-voting systems, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged immediate passage of e-voting legislation to prevent election fraud.
Security researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Rice University announced today that they have discovered numerous serious security flaws in what they believe is one of the leading e-voting systems in the country -- the Diebold Electron Systems' e-voting terminal.
Among the security flaws discovered were several ways in which individual voters could vote multiple times in a given election. The researchers also uncovered methods permitting voters to "trick" the e-voting machines into allowing them system administrator privileges or even terminating an election before tallying all legitimate votes.
"EFF supports electronic voting, but this report indicates Diebold's e-voting system isn't ready for prime time," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn, who advised the security researchers. "This report describes how voters, election officials, insiders at e-voting companies, and even custodians at election locations could manipulate elections and defraud the public."
"Only with open review, vigorous security testing, and a voter verifiable paper audit trail can the public have confidence that e-voting machines will provide an actual accounting of the will of the people," said EFF Activist Ren Bucholz. "We urge everyone who cares about democracy to support effective e-voting legislation."
Concerned citizens can voice their support for Representative Holt's bill to require open source e-voting systems and voter verifiable paper audit trails.
Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org
+1 415 436-9333 x108 (office)
Ren Bucholz
Activist
Electronic Frontier Foundation
ren@eff.org
+1 415 436-9333 x121 (office)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/
