Voting Machines With Disappearing Logs Finally Under Investigation

We knew how you could hack a voting machine, but California has discovered that some of its machines practically invite you to play. Machines made by Premier Election Solutions are finally under investigation for their faulty, omissive, easily alterable logs.

The centre of the investigation is the log design which allows “election official or someone else to delete votes without leaving an electronic trail”. But according to a previous statement by Justin Bales, general service manager of the company making the machines, it’s not so much a flaw in design as it is in planning:

We never . . . intended for any malicious intent and not to log certain activities,” Bales said. “It was just not in the initial program, but now we’re taking a serious look at that.

Whatever the cause or reason, at least new versions of the voting machines include more comprehensive logs as well as safeguards against alterations, but it’s about damn time the previous ones are being investigated. [Wired]