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Team 4 Investigates Voting Machine Security Issues
The following is a transcript of a report by Team 4 reporter Jim Parsons that first aired Feb. 7, 2008, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.
The way things are shaping up, Pennsylvania's presidential primary could be a deciding contest. But before you go to the polls, there's something you should know about the personal safety and security of your vote. When you go to the automated teller machine and make a deposit, you get a receipt to prove that you put the money in. When you vote on the touch-screen voting machines, you don't get a receipt. All of your trust is in the lights and wires set inside a box, which could be a problem. "We'll do everything we have to do to make sure the vote is secure and accurate," said Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato. But Team 4 found the doors to the warehouse where voting machines are stored wide open on several warm days. The county has installed security cameras over those doors, but a door in the back is not being monitored. It leads to a private company, whose employees often come and go, and that company sometimes leaves its loading dock door wide open. Team 4's Jim Parsons asked Allegheny County elections director Mark Wolosik if that concerns him. "Um, no," he said. "There's usually somebody around. That's why the doors are open. There are people here." People are watching over not just the Ivotronic voting machines but also the brains of those machines, which are cartridges known as "personalized electronic ballot," or PEBs. If you get your hands on a PEB, experts said, you might be able to alter an election. "If I program a PEB a certain way, when I insert it into an Ivotronic, whatever password was programmed into the Ivotronic doesn't matter," said Collin Lynch of VoteAllegheny.org, "If it sends out that code to any Ivotronic anywhere in the world, it will roll over, play fetch, do whatever you want." And here's something that hasn't been reported before. Last year, Allegheny County lost three of its PEBs. "A judge of election in Mount Lebanon thought he returned them, but he never did," said Wolosik. "And we have never found them." Here's another security problem. A week before each election, Allegheny County sends all of its electronic voting machines from the warehouse to hundreds of schools, churches and other polling places, where they sit, often open to the public. "It would be virtually impossible for us to have all 1,321 machines under 24-hour-a-day guard," said Wolosik. So, what's the county's solution? It's a plastic, color-coded tie. "The machines, we place a seal on," said Wolosik. "It's a uniquely-numbered seal. We have a record of the seal." "They're sort of sealed in the sense that there's a little plastic zip tie thing with a number on it," said Dr. David Eckhardt of Carnegie Mellon University. "But that wouldn't defeat anyone motivated." "Couple of screwdrivers and a little experience, and you can pop the seals and alter the machines," said Lynch. In Colorado and Cleveland, elections officials have recently stopped using the ES&S Ivotronic, which is the same machine Allegheny County uses. That's because of a December Penn State University study that found a half-dozen security flaws with the machine, including the ability to use a palm pilot to hijack the voting machine by fooling it into thinking that the palm pilot is actually the PEB cartridge. The study warns that "the ability to emulate a PEB enables a wide range of serious poll worker and voter attacks." That caused Team 4 to wonder about poll workers in Allegheny County. Team 4 found 13 judges of election, the bosses at polling places, who have criminal convictions. When Parsons asked one convicted elections judge if anyone from the County Elections Department ever asked about his robbery conviction, the man told him, "No." He's still on probation for his 2002 felony robbery conviction. Another election judge in Allegheny County was facing felony gun and drug charges last November when she was in charge of her polling place, and she has been convicted of forgery. But, like all election judges, they have sole possession of the PEBs for several days leading up to an election. "If you have a forger and a couple people who have been convinced to collude with a forger, yeah, that would concern me," said Eckhardt. "Somebody who comes in from out of town and wants to rig our election, because it's a presidential election and everybody in the world cares," said Lynch. "There are specific prohibitions where you cannot be an election officer, and being convicted of a crime is not one of them," said Wolosik. Maybe not in the election code, but Pennsylvania's constitution says, "No person convicted of ... an infamous crime, shall be ... capable of holding any office of trust." Team 4 asked former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor if election judge is considered a position of trust. "Clearly with an elected official of any level, it's going to be a position of public trust," he said. Castor has removed a number of elected officials with convictions from office. And election judge is an elected position. But removing a dozen election judges with convictions won't resolve all of the security concerns with the machines. "We work very hard in this county to improve our procedures. And we are. But at the end of the day, it's the machines that are the problem," said Lynch. An Allegheny County Council advisory panel has issued a report, calling on the county to scrap the Ivotronic machines and replace them with electronic machines that also create a paper record, like ATMs. Indiana County uses a machine that does both. But Onorato said he wouldn't do that unless the federal or state government agrees to pay for it.
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The way things are shaping up, Pennsylvania's presidential primary could be a deciding contest. But before you go to the polls, there's something you should know about the personal safety and security of your vote. When you go to the automated teller machine and make a deposit, you get a receipt to prove that you put the money in. When you vote on the touch-screen voting machines, you don't get a receipt. All of your trust is in the lights and wires set inside a box, which could be a problem. "We'll do everything we have to do to make sure the vote is secure and accurate," said Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato. But Team 4 found the doors to the warehouse where voting machines are stored wide open on several warm days. The county has installed security cameras over those doors, but a door in the back is not being monitored. It leads to a private company, whose employees often come and go, and that company sometimes leaves its loading dock door wide open. Team 4's Jim Parsons asked Allegheny County elections director Mark Wolosik if that concerns him. "Um, no," he said. "There's usually somebody around. That's why the doors are open. There are people here." People are watching over not just the Ivotronic voting machines but also the brains of those machines, which are cartridges known as "personalized electronic ballot," or PEBs. If you get your hands on a PEB, experts said, you might be able to alter an election. "If I program a PEB a certain way, when I insert it into an Ivotronic, whatever password was programmed into the Ivotronic doesn't matter," said Collin Lynch of VoteAllegheny.org, "If it sends out that code to any Ivotronic anywhere in the world, it will roll over, play fetch, do whatever you want." And here's something that hasn't been reported before. Last year, Allegheny County lost three of its PEBs. "A judge of election in Mount Lebanon thought he returned them, but he never did," said Wolosik. "And we have never found them." Here's another security problem. A week before each election, Allegheny County sends all of its electronic voting machines from the warehouse to hundreds of schools, churches and other polling places, where they sit, often open to the public. "It would be virtually impossible for us to have all 1,321 machines under 24-hour-a-day guard," said Wolosik. So, what's the county's solution? It's a plastic, color-coded tie. "The machines, we place a seal on," said Wolosik. "It's a uniquely-numbered seal. We have a record of the seal." "They're sort of sealed in the sense that there's a little plastic zip tie thing with a number on it," said Dr. David Eckhardt of Carnegie Mellon University. "But that wouldn't defeat anyone motivated." "Couple of screwdrivers and a little experience, and you can pop the seals and alter the machines," said Lynch. In Colorado and Cleveland, elections officials have recently stopped using the ES&S Ivotronic, which is the same machine Allegheny County uses. That's because of a December Penn State University study that found a half-dozen security flaws with the machine, including the ability to use a palm pilot to hijack the voting machine by fooling it into thinking that the palm pilot is actually the PEB cartridge. The study warns that "the ability to emulate a PEB enables a wide range of serious poll worker and voter attacks." That caused Team 4 to wonder about poll workers in Allegheny County. Team 4 found 13 judges of election, the bosses at polling places, who have criminal convictions. When Parsons asked one convicted elections judge if anyone from the County Elections Department ever asked about his robbery conviction, the man told him, "No." He's still on probation for his 2002 felony robbery conviction. Another election judge in Allegheny County was facing felony gun and drug charges last November when she was in charge of her polling place, and she has been convicted of forgery. But, like all election judges, they have sole possession of the PEBs for several days leading up to an election. "If you have a forger and a couple people who have been convinced to collude with a forger, yeah, that would concern me," said Eckhardt. "Somebody who comes in from out of town and wants to rig our election, because it's a presidential election and everybody in the world cares," said Lynch. "There are specific prohibitions where you cannot be an election officer, and being convicted of a crime is not one of them," said Wolosik. Maybe not in the election code, but Pennsylvania's constitution says, "No person convicted of ... an infamous crime, shall be ... capable of holding any office of trust." Team 4 asked former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor if election judge is considered a position of trust. "Clearly with an elected official of any level, it's going to be a position of public trust," he said. Castor has removed a number of elected officials with convictions from office. And election judge is an elected position. But removing a dozen election judges with convictions won't resolve all of the security concerns with the machines. "We work very hard in this county to improve our procedures. And we are. But at the end of the day, it's the machines that are the problem," said Lynch. An Allegheny County Council advisory panel has issued a report, calling on the county to scrap the Ivotronic machines and replace them with electronic machines that also create a paper record, like ATMs. Indiana County uses a machine that does both. But Onorato said he wouldn't do that unless the federal or state government agrees to pay for it.
Related Links:
More County News Get RSS | E-Mail Alerts
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