Researchers Reprogram Voting Machine To Run Pac-man 132
Philom writes "Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that electronic voting machines can be reprogrammed to steal votes, so when researchers Alex Halderman and Ari Feldman got their hands on a machine called the Sequoia AVC Edge, they decided to do something different: they reprogrammed it to run Pac-Man. As states move away from insecure electronic voting, there's a risk that discarded machines will clog our landfills. Fortunately, these results show that voting machines can be recycled to provide countless hours of entertainment."
Re:What would Namco say? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"insecure electronic voting" (Score:2, Informative)
The problem is, that you can't proof the result is correct.
They tried to use election machines in Germany for their cost-effectedness and in order to get the results faster.
The experts of the CCC (www.ccc.org) could show how easy it is to tamper with it.
The High Court used their expertise to state that while electronic voting machines are not per se forbidden, the only way they would be allowed is by making them as easy to proof as an old fashioned ballot box.
E.g. providing a print out so the voter could proof his vote was correctly counted. But this print out would have been able for a recount.
And that is were it begins to get funny: Every voter has the right to watch the process of the counting and the preparation and has the right to be able to SEE the votes are counted in a correct way. So you wait for the voting day to be over, wait for the electronic results and then - DEMAND a recount of the printouts.
The High Court stated that while every citizen has the right to see for himself that everything went OK, there is NO constitutional right for an early result.
The voting computers were put out of business.
Interesting (Score:3, Informative)
It was just a quick comment in TFA, but they were able to do this WITHOUT damaging the seals on the device.
With any luck, this and similar efforts will give the things enough resale value that only 95% of the taxpayer's money will end up flushed down the toilet.