ENSURING that elections for political leaders are fair and that votes stay secret is vital for any democracy. So why take the risk that it may be tampered with by hackers?
That is the question being asked this week by computer scientists and, no doubt, by citizens of California and other US states that have embraced e-voting, after it was revealed that new touch-screen voting machines have been designed to broadcast vote tallies across the airwaves.
The machines, made by Diebold Election Systems in Canton, Ohio, will accept plug-in circuits in the PCMCIA format widely used in laptop computers to allow the machines to connect to a wireless network. The company has not yet configured the machines to go wireless, but says this could easily be done if they are certified for use.
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Transmitting votes this way would relieve officials of the task of collecting them from each individual voting terminal. But some computer experts say the system will be open to corruption. 鈥淲ireless capability is almost ideally suited for hackers,鈥� says Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, as it means they can tamper with the machines remotely.
If certified, Diebold鈥檚 machines will be used in November鈥檚 presidential election. Anyone still reeling from the debacle of the hanging chads in Florida in 2000 is not likely to be reassured.