Ask HN: Do you think the NSA has compromised voting Machines?

11 points by wsloth514 12 years ago | 12 comments

All the talk about the NSA surveillance has got me thinking. How hard would it be for them to snoop on voting machines? Is this even feasible? If this is possible, how hard would it be to believe that they have altered/snooped on elections if they had the power to do so. This could be a stupid question. But I am just thinking out loud.

patmcc 12 years ago |

Why would they bother? Doesn't look like either party has different feelings/actions towards them. They seem to be doing fine with whoever is in charge.

bediger4000 12 years ago |

If it means anything, that question has occurred to me, too. I think it would be pretty easy to snoop or hack US voting machines, except that the storage and care of those machines is so decentralized.

mschuster91 12 years ago | |

The fact that storage/maintenance is decentralized makes manipulation easier, in fact. For example, take voting machines stored in a school's locker room. Show the low-paid, possibly immigrant, janitor a FBI badge and he'll instantly let you in the room with the machines.

Now, imagine big, centralized storage facilities with proper security. A trained guard would most likely not simply some FBI agent in without a warrant.

malandrew 12 years ago | | |

Not a janitor or trained guard, but a manager would with an NSL.

mildavw 12 years ago |

I don't think it's a stupid question at all.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6218004

wsloth514 12 years ago | |

Hmm, I didn't think about it that way. That is a valid point. Also, which ever party the president holds, doesn't he/she technically can use the NSA to their advantage?

mildavw 12 years ago | | |

I would guess that, no, the president can't just use them any way he wants. There would be/is lots of politics involved.

Pengu 12 years ago |

Voting is essentially a joke to begin with, it's always the same families you're voting for, anyone else who rises up in popularity can be coerced out of their position.

wsloth514 12 years ago | |

Yes, I agree, sadly. That is what this country has come too. Democracy failing, and two parties have too much power and in essence it makes no difference because they are the same business party. The nominees are usually just pawns playing a role for personal gain. But it shows that things need to get changed. Best example is that in Georgia you need to fill out 12 pages of paper to vote. They do this to intimidate people who can not read from voting (usually the 'black' vote) where as in NJ they don't do this. Elections being a joke and a government agency trying to corrupt it is another thing all together. 'Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber' - Plato

tjr 12 years ago |

What snooping would they do?

wsloth514 12 years ago | |

Who is in the lead. What Regions/Districts are what majority. I mean if you can theoretically get real time data on voting machines. There is a lot you can do with that information. Everything from 'what days of the week will democrats vote' to 'predicting who will win the election'. If names are stored with a timestamp, they could potentially know exactly who you vote for and the time you do it. I think that part is far fetched. But it is an idea. All the information could be used for skewing future elections. For that parties favor.

entendre 12 years ago | | |

Real time data is useful for 2 reasons:

A) Phonebanking redistributing your limited resources to GOTV on election day. B) Responding to incidents with legal council on the ground to contest potential fraud ASAP

So how does fraud detection work? Why do you think they sink millions and millions of dollars into polling. Long before election day both sides have a pretty accurate statistical model and break down of how each district will vote and the thresholds of deviation from that model which will set off "Fraud!" bells.

This is also why the NSA probably doesn't manipulate Federal Elections.

This is also why no one would bother to take the risk to get real time results. Its not valuable enough information. Campaign technology staffs have been working (I know, I helped) and will continue to work on ways to collect exit polls on the spot via hand helds or other means as close to real time as possible... just to get a statistically significant indication of whether what's happening on the ground deviates from the model far enough to allocate resources.