Can Electronic Voting In Fort Bend County Be Fixed? Yes Says This Study! -- Click title link for full FB Herald Story --

Are voting machines vulnerable?

By Stephen Palkot
August 6, 2007 1:09 PM CDT


The voting machines used for elections in Fort Bend County were found recently to be vulnerable to various attacks.

A team of researchers from the University of California at Davis conducted security tests on three electronic voting machines, including the Hart InterCivic eSlate machine used by Fort Bend County, for a study commissioned by the California Secretary of State's office.

Its report, a "Top-to-Bottom Review" of the systems, concludes the eSlate voting machines do not have ample safeguards to prevent the possibility of a voter or poll worker manipulating elections results through a "direct attack" at a voting location. . .

. . . Fort Bend County Elections Administrator J.R. Perez said Fort Bend County residents can be secure in their votes, since the process must be monitored by election judges and county election workers.

"You have to remember on election day there are election judges whose duty is to watch and maintain order and make sure that doesn't happen," he said.

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MCC comment: The last two paragraphs above, IMO, are just not that reassuring given the history, ethics and investigations that have occurred in this county over the recent past.