Touchscreen voting passwords: “abcde” and “admin”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRE_voting_machine#/media/File:Jellybuttons.jpg

Is anyone really this stupid in 2015?

(The Guardian)- Touchscreen voting machines used in numerous elections between 2002 and 2014 used “abcde” and “admin” as passwords and could easily have been hacked from the parking lot outside the polling place, according to a state report.
The AVS WinVote machines, used in three presidential elections in Virginia, “would get an F-minus” in security, according to a computer scientist at tech research group SRI International who had pushed for a formal inquiry by the state of Virginia for close to a decade.
In a damning study published Tuesday, the Virginia Information Technology Agency and outside contractor Pro V&V found numerous flaws in the system, which had also been used in Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
Jeremy Epstein, of the Menlo Park, California, nonprofit SRI International, served on a Virginia state legislative commission investigating the voting machines in 2008. He has been trying to get them decertified ever since.
Anyone within a half mile could have modified every vote, undetected, Epstein said in a blog post. “I got to question a guy by the name of Brit Williams, who’d certified them, and I said, ‘How did you do a penetration test?’” Epstein told the Guardian, “and he said, ‘I don’t know how to do something like that’.”

NBC suggests Romney may rig Ohio voting machines?

The Kool-Aid runs deep at NBC...

In fact, with the incredibly close race comes a growing fear that Republicans are trying to steal the election with a dirty tactics to intimidate voters and manipulate the electoral process.

Democrats argue the push for voter ID laws, shortened early voting time frames or the spreading of rumors that voters will be chastised on Election Day, are all moves to disenfranchise without legitimate justification.

Now, the integrity of electronic voting machines is back in the spotlight. Reports are circulating there are “dubious links” between the voting machines in some counties [Hamilton and William] in Ohio and Governor Romney.

The machines are supplied by Hart Intercivic, a national e-voting company. The Austin-based firm is partially owned by H.I.G Capital, an investment company that has business ties to Solamere Capital, Tagg Romney’s [Mitt’s oldest son] equity firm.

The suggestion is that the Romney link is at best a conflict of interest, with even the potential for bias, fraud or irregularity.

Some NY-23 Voting Machines Had a Virus

A computer virus was found on several Dominion/Sequoia voting machines used in NY-23. Technicians allegedly fixed the problem, but the machines were used without re-certification. Other district machines have not been checked. Hoffman has un-conceded the race and is reportedly lawyering up. This could get interesting.

GOUVERNEUR, NY - The computerized voting machines used by many voters in the 23rd district had a computer virus - tainting the results, not just from those machines known to have been infected, but casting doubt on the accuracy of counts retrieved from any of the machines....