European voting machines flawed, easily manipulated

VOTING MACHINES used in Europe look like they may be as dodgy as those that have caused such a rumpus on the far side of the Pond.

A paper published on a Web site named, "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (translation: We don't trust voting machines) details a bunch of flaws researchers claim to uncovered in machines used in Holland Germany and France.

Researchers spent a month looking into the way the machines work and concluded: "Anyone, when given brief access to the devices at any time before the election, can gain complete and virtually undetectable control over the election results."

The machine, the ES3B is developed by NV Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Nedap) along with software developer Groenendaal has been recently used by around of 90 per cent of Dutch voters.

But as nedap itself warns here, "Everything can be manipulated".

Boffin Edward W. Felten of Princton University says in his bog that the apparent flaws are just like those those he discovered afflicting Diebold Inc.'s touch-screen voting machine used in the United States.

"To see the same simple, easily avoided weaknesses, such as the use of identical widely-available keys and weak passwords/PINs, popping up again, has to teach a deeper lesson," writes Felton.

The results of the Dutch investigation, written by a team of e-voting researchers led by Rop Gonggrijp and Willem-Jan Hengeveld, are available in a pdf here. µ