The potential for election fraud that is posed by the new computerized electronic voting machines that have been adopted by 49 of the 50 states and are due to come into use in New York this year was the subject of a documentary viewing and discussion at the Muddy Cup Coffee House at 305 Main St. in Poughkeepsie on Sunday afternoon, July 13. The film, “Hacking Democracy,” purports to show how software-driven optical scanners which are serviced by private companies can easily be hacked into, to the detriment of democracy.
Presented by lawyer Andi Novick of the Responsible Media Transparency Coalition and County Legislator Joel Tyner (D-Rhinebeck/Clinton), the showing inspired several people to make the case for retaining the old lever voting machines in the time that is allotted for public remarks before the Dutchess County Legislature the following evening.
“The right to vote is the right that protects all others,” Novick told her listeners. “If we lose that, we lose everything. And the right to vote is not simply the right to show up at a polling place and pull a lever. It is the right to have your choice accurately counted.”
The film showed in great technical detail how undetectable changes can be made to the type of software used in the new machines. It stated that the technology is of such a level of sophistication that it is beyond the comprehension of most voting officials, who may be equipped to maintain order and regularity at the polling place, but are powerless to affect hacking during the vote counting process.
In the film’s climax, a group of tech-savvy opponents of the new machines carefully demonstrate before a befuddled official how easy it is to alter the results of elections under the new technology.
“I don’t know how to describe what I saw here today,” he gasps. “I think that the venders of voting machines are driving the process, and we should put the emphasis on letting the people decide what is the best voting technology.”
“Election officials can’t function if everything goes on in a concealed black box,” Novick said after the film. “The software is mutable, it can be altered. Getting rid of levers and going to software was snake oil. The lever system is an incredibly reliable system – you can’t rig it on a mass scale. The election officials are really stuck; they bought the snake oil and nobody wants to admit it.”
“We are one of the few countries in the world where the voting process has been privatized,” Gary Kenton, a Poughkeepsie teacher who is part of the Voting Integrity Task Force set up by the Dutchess County Legislature, said during the discussion after the film. ‘In most countries the government takes responsibility for the integrity of the process. I’m not opposed to technology, but the question is: who controls the technology?”
At the end of the viewing, Tyner urged those present to make their voices heard on the issue before the county Legislature, and several paid heed to his plea.
“Electronic voting machines have proven to be a security nightmare,” said Brian Bell of Port Ewen in Ulster County. “All the evidence points to a conspiracy to manipulate and control elections.”
“As a computer science student, I believe software and technology have many applications,” said Paul Beykirch, a Dutchess Community College computer science major. “But I don’t feel it is viable when it comes down to our vote. The voting officials are generally not computer savvy, and the results can be manipulated.”