Social engineering, not hacking. Here’s the news:
’06 election officer pleads guilty to voter fraud conspiracy
LONDON, Ky. (AP) — An eastern Kentucky man who was an election officer has pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit voter fraud during primary elections two years ago.
Acting U.S. Attorney James Zerhusen’s office says 36-year-old Charles Newton Weaver of Manchester admitted agreeing to change votes of voters who were unfamiliar with new electronic voting machines. The prosecutor’s office says Weaver led voters to believe their vote was cast by pressing one button, although a second button was required to cast the vote.
Zerhusen’s office says Weaver changed votes after voters left the machines during the 2006 primary elections for county officials in Clay County.
The secretary of state’s office said after the 2006 primary that some voters reported that they didn’t know how to properly cast their ballots and that they were misled by poll workers.
For more information, check out the Kentucky SoS site.
OK, so I guess we have to play Name That Party™, eh?
Oh, mannnn. Assuming the facts are pretty much as stated, what does that say about the usability design of the voting machines, and/or the credulity of the voters who were misled? Sometimes I really do weep for the freakin’ species. This almost rises to that level. :\
Well, this is an AP story. If they don’t identify the culprit’s party, that means he’s probably a Democrat. If they identify him as a Republican, that means he’s definitely a Democrat. If they identify him as a Democrat, that means you’ve been sucked through a wormhole into an alternate universe, and you might be a Democrat, too.
If it’s a touch screen they have no srgument, they have to review the choices, before they push the red button.
More recently, yet more disturbingly:
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1266
FYI: Weaver is a Republican in a county dominanted by Reblicans.