Electronic Voting Machines Easily Hacked

Tests on the electronic voting machines in Florida are revealing how easy it is for hackers to alter the votes that are recorded. It's so easy that "eighth-graders" could do it. Here's a quote:

Thompson told The Herald he was "shocked" at how easy it was to get in, make the loser the winner and leave without a trace. The machine asked for a user name and password, but didn't require it, he said. That meant it had not just a "front door, but a back door as big as a garage," Thompson said.

From there, Thompson said, he typed five lines of computer code -- and switched 5,000 votes from one candidate to another.

"I am positive an eighth grader could do this," Thompson said.

Here's another one:

"These were sold as safe systems. They passed tests as safe systems," Sancho said. "But even in the so-called safe system, if you don't follow the paper ballots, there is a way to rig the election. Except it's not a bunch of guys stuffing ballots in a precinct. It's possibly one person acting in secret changing thousands of votes in a second."

Predictably, machine manufacturers and election officials are basically saying, "Just trust us."