Princeton Professor Andrew Appel hacks a Sequoia AVC Advantage
Electronic Voting Machine
Bad news for election fraud conspiracy theorists, anyone? I don't believe that this problem is as bad as people say, but for the tinfoil brigade, I offer the following:
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, appointed by Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, has filed papers in the matter of Gusciora v State of New Jersey which purport to rebut the contention that the Sequoia AVC Advantage direct-recording electronic (DRE) model voting machine can be hacked and, thus, should be taken out of service for this election cycle. Sadly, that case is not listed for trial until January of 2009.
Jump to hyperspace here:
Those papers include a report by the State of New Jersey's expert, Michael Shamos, PhD, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, which responds to the contentions raised in the plaintiff's experts report, prepared by Andrew Appel of Princeton University.
Appel's report, released on October 17th, can be viewed here:
http://freedom-to-tinker.com/...
Judge Linda Feinberg, sitting in Trenton, NJ, had previously ordered that Appel's full report not be released until both Sequoia and the State of New Jersey had an opportunity to review and respond to that report.
Judge Feinberg also ordered that Attorney General's Office report back to her on what steps are being taken to safeguard the Sequioa machines in their warehouses and at the polling places on Election Day.
Sequoia's responsive report, released October 17th, can be read here:
http://www.marketwatch.com/...
The State's report can be read here:
http://www.state.nj.us/...
This lawsuit was filed by the Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic, seeking to decommission all of New Jersey's voting computers, basically because, as Professor Appel contends, there is no proof that the voting machines meet the requirements of the New Jersey Constitution and Statutes that require that all votes be counted as cast. The basic legal arguments of that lawsuit can be read here:
http://www.scribd.com/...
Apparently, Judge Feinberg does not believe that the potential for voter fraud using the Sequoia machines is so great that emergent relief, in the form of an Order barring the use of the Sequoia machines on Election Day, is necessary. Let's hope she is correct. More to come as this story develops.