Electronic Voting Machines Under Attack

A popular electronic voting machine used in the United States, the Diebold AccuVote-TS, is highly vulnerable to attacks, according to a study released today by three computer scientists at Princeton University. The scientists, Ariel J. Feldman, Edward W. Felten, and J. Alex Halderman, report that someone who gains access to the machine or its memory card for as little as one minute could change votes without leaving a trace of the fraudulent activity. The scientists also conclude that during an election, an attacker could spread a virus from voting machine to voting machine.—Andrea L. Foster