Evoting in India, Maryland

Anonymous Coward writes "EVMs are back in the news again. The BBC is reporting on the use of over a million Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in India for Parliamentary elections in April. With a billion people and an electorate of 668 million, it is by far the largest democratic election exercise in the world. A picture of an EVM is provided." And Kierthos writes "An article on Yahoo! News mentions that Maryland's voting terminals will be wrapped in tamper proof tape, which 'just protects that malicious code physically', according to computer scientist Avi Rubin. Also mentioned are California's ongoing system of e-voting, as well as a point on whether Diebold should be banned in California after using uncertified software in last October's election."

Tamper-proof tape?

[Derling Whirvish]

Oh riiighht. All you have to do to prevent tampering with an on-line computer is to "wrap it in tamper-proof tape." Sure. Uh huh.

Don't you realize...

[Anonymous Coward]

...everything's secure when you use Duct Tape!

Re:Tamper-proof tape?

[NeuroManson]

That reminds me of the good ol' days when people would put condoms on their floppy disks to prevent themselves from catching computer viruses.

Re:hmm

[BuckaBooBob]

Maryland's voting terminals will be wrapped in tamper proof tape.

Cool does it come with that Magic Server Pixie Dust and a Universal Business Adapter (That actually does require an adapter to connect to a unix machine) and some of those other cool Gizmo's on IBM's commericals?

Solution to the e-voting problem

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Discard all electronic voting machines
2. Use paper ballots
3. Complain about your life, blame everything on the elected official
4. Repeat in four years

This provides identical results at greatly reduced cost and time.

Re:Tamper-proof tape?

[NanoGator]

"Oh riiighht. All you have to do to prevent tampering with an on-line computer is to "wrap it in tamper-proof tape." Sure. Uh huh."

Sadly, they still use that in the future. It didn't keep anybody out of Mr. Spock's quarters.

Re:Tamper-proof tape?

[houstonbofh]

Shhh... That is one of the new security features in XP SP2! Keep it under wraps!

Re:Voting in India

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to vote for the ruling BJP

Blow-Job Party? Here, we call them Democrats.

Re:hmm

[Ian Wolf]

For some inexplicable reason I didn't think of that.

Well the simple solutiong is tamper tape on top of tamper tape. ;) I bet somebody brought that up in a meeting somewhere.

Re:hmm

[Ian Wolf]

"I don't know that pencil mark is outside the line." *stops peering through magnifying glass* "I think its safe to assume that we cannot determine the voter's intent."

Why don't we have tech-literate judges?

[flossie]

"Without the least doubt, I say the machine is fully tamper-proof," the judge declared.

I'm impressed by the fact that they clearly have technically literate judges in India. As a mere engineer, I would be very hesitant to proclaim an electronic system tamper-proof. Clearly Indian judges are experts in electronics, cryptography and the law. Very impressive.

Who?

[Anonymous Coward]

Judge K Shridhar Rao, in a recent order in connection with an election dispute, ruled that rigging was not possible with the use of EVMs. "Without the least doubt, I say the machine is fully tamper-proof," the judge declared.

Ah yes, well known cybersecurity expert Judge K Shridhar Rao.

Go get me a Slurpy, Shridhar!

India is a town in Maryland?

[aat]

India is a town in Maryland? I never knew that....

Or maybe the headline was supposed to have been
Evoting in India and Maryland

Re:Tamper-proof tape?

[SpaceLifeForm]

Exactly, they've got it all wrong. They should use that plastic they wrap CDs in.

Re:Why is the vote of the illerterate that importa

[Gyan]

In the end, what is the value of an uninformed vote?

George W. Bush will be happy to tell you.

Re:stupid stupid

[berkeleyjunk]

Dude,
It cannot be. If the guy/gal is smart enough to write 2 lines of C code he/she cannot be republican.

Cheers
Junk

Re:hmm

[kfg]

What on earth have apes ever done to you to deserve such disrespect?

KFG