New York Times

The Myth of the Hacker-Proof Voting Machine
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/magazine/the-myth-of-the-hacker-proof-voting-machine.html
https://archive.vn/rgQP1

In the 15 years since electronic voting machines were first adopted by many states, numerous reports by computer scientists have shown nearly every make and model to be vulnerable to hacking. The systems were not initially designed with robust security in mind, and even where security features were included, experts have found them to be poorly implemented with glaring holes.

An ES&S contract with Michigan from 2006 describes how the company’s tech support workers used remote-access software called pcAnywhere to access customer election systems. And a report from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, that same year describes pcAnywhere on that county’s election-management system on June 2 when ES&S representatives spent hours trying to reconcile vote discrepancies in a local district race that took place during a May 16th primary. An Allegheny County election official told me that remote-access software came pre-installed on their ES&S election-management system.

A Pennsylvania County’s Election Day Nightmare Underscores Voting Machine Concerns
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/us/politics/pennsylvania-voting-machines.html
https://archive.vn/0kNP0

In total, E.S.&S. spent more than $425,000 in lobbying expenses related to the City of Philadelphia.

Emails obtained by the city comptroller also found that E.S.&S. had influenced the writing of the city commissioners’ $22 million budget request for new election machines, tilting the process in favor of its machine, the ExpressVoteXL. The city eventually purchased the machines for $29 million in February.

The snafu in Northampton County did not just expose flaws in both the election machine testing and procurement process. It also highlighted the fears, frustrations and mistrust over election security that many voters are feeling ahead of the 2020 presidential contest, given how faith in American elections has never been more fragile. The problematic machines were also used in Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs — areas of Pennsylvania that could prove decisive next year in one of the most critical presidential swing states in the country.

US Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties October 2006

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/washington/29ballot.html https://archive.vn/z0HUx

But the role of the young Venezuelan engineers who founded Smartmatic has become less visible in public documents as the company has been restructured into an elaborate web of offshore companies and foreign trusts.

The government should know who owns our voting machines; that is a national security concern,” said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who asked the Bush administration in May to review the Sequoia takeover.

The Guardian

They think they are above the law': the firms that own America's voting system
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/22/us-voting-machine-private-companies-voter-registration

Oregon senator Ron Wyden, in a speech at an election security conference in Washington DC, said that the voting machine lobby “literally thinks they are just above the law, they are accountable to nobody, [and] they have been able to hotwire the political system in certain parts of the country like we’ve seen in Georgia”.

Wyden was referring to the fact that Brian Kemp, who is now Georgia’s governor after overseeing his own election while secretary of state, appointed an ES&S lobbyist as his deputy chief of staff. Meanwhile, the state is in the process of purchasing more than $150m in new voting machines.

Why machines are bad at counting votes
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/apr/30/e-voting-electronic-polling-systems

Hack the vote: terrifying film shows how vulnerable US elections are
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/26/kill-chain-hbo-election-hacking-documentary

America's new voting machines bring new fears of election tampering
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/22/us-voting-machines-paper-ballots-2020-hacking

At least two companies that sell the machines, Dominion and Election Systems & Software, combined a BMD, which prints a filled-out ballot, with a scanner, which counts the votes. Large election jurisdictions such as Delaware, New York and Philadelphia are purchasing these “hybrid” systems, which some observers say creates two problems.

First, the printer and the scanner share the same paper path. If a voter leaves any races blank – a common practice called undervoting – the machine could in theory autofill those races. Neither the voter nor election administrators would be able to detect the change. Second, the hybrid machines have a feature critics are calling “permission to cheat”. Voters can opt not to review their ballots, meaning that the BMD prints the ballot straight to the scanner and into the lockbox. In such cases, there would be no way to confirm that what the voter intended to vote was actually what was printed and counted.

John Oliver on exploitable voting machines: 'We must fix this'
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/04/john-oliver-exploitable-voting-machines

New Yorker

“How Voting-Machine Lobbyists Undermine the Democratic Process”
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/how-voting-machine-lobbyists-undermine-the-democratic-process

Politico

Election commission orders top voting machine vendor to correct misleading claims
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/13/election-voting-machine-misleading-claims-394891

The scramble to secure America’s voting machines
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/election-security-americas-voting-machines/

Reuters

June 2020, Reuters, “Exclusive: Philadelphia’s new voting machines under scrutiny in Tuesday’s elections”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-pennsylvania-machines-ex/exclusive-philadelphias-new-voting-machines-under-scrutiny-in-tuesdays-elections-idUSKBN23828J

NBC News

Online and vulnerable’: Experts find nearly three dozen U.S. voting systems connected to internet”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/online-vulnerable-experts-find-nearly-three-dozen-u-s-voting-n1112436

Washington Post

The Cybersecurity 202: Lawsuit seeks to force Pennsylvania to scrap these electronic voting machines over hacking fears
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-cybersecurity-202/2019/12/13/the-cybersecurity-202-lawsuit-seeks-to-force-pennsylvania-to-scrap-these-electronic-voting-machines-over-hacking-fears/5df27a70602ff125ce5b2fec/

The Hill,

Voting machines pose a greater threat to our elections than foreign agents
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/464065-voting-machines-pose-a-greater-threat-to-our-elections-than-foreign-agents

Vice

Exclusive: Critical U.S. Election Systems Have Been Left Exposed Online Despite Official Denials
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kxzk9/exclusive-critical-us-election-systems-have-been-left-exposed-online-despite-official-denials