Ah, America. Mom. Apple pie. Baseball. Cheating? Maybe my grandfather was right when he said "Computers? Buncha mumbo jumbo." Diebold recently admitted their voter machines were about as easy to hack as an Apple 2e and now this.

Princeton researchers spent a lot of time with the Sequoia e-voting machine and things don’t look pretty for the future of America. They released a 158 page report detailing just how easy it is to hack into it. A researcher was able to bypass the security mechanisms in thirteen seconds. This, also, was with the device located inside of the standard-issue lockbox. Thirteen seconds.I yawn longer than that.

Also, once hacked, it’s easy to transfer malicious code to other units as they are all networked together. Well, look on the bright side. Now I’ll finally be able to get ALF elected to congress. I’ve been dreaming of that since elementary school. Ha! I kill me!

Here is a link to the report.

I am all for anything that makes the voting process easier, but is it wise to go with a flawed system? Oh wait, we are talking about California and "powers-that-be."

A review showed significant security flaws, which made the state impose new security measures. However, researchers trying to hack into the machines found vulnerabilities in each of them

In Diebold machines, "we were able to discover attacks for the Diebold system that could compromise the accuracy, secrecy, and availability of the voting systems," the report stated.

Hart software and devices "appear to be susceptible to a variety of attacks which would allow an attacker to gain control," the report said, while it was found that attacks on Sequoia machines "can be carried out without any knowledge of the source code."

But California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has cleared the Diebold, Hart, and Sequoia voting terminals for use anyway.