HOW TO RIG A VOTING MACHINE IN ONE EASY STEP
All computers work in response to instructions written by a programmer. All of the individual instructions taken together are called the program. Programming a computer is similar to giving instructions to a small literal-minded child. If you request your spouse to get a bottle of milk, you might say, “Please go to the store and get a bottle of milk.”
But if you request that of a small child, you might have to say, “Please take that dollar on the table, put it in your pocket, get on your bike and ride to the store on the corner, select a one-quart bottle of whole milk from the dairy case, take it to the check-out counter, let the cashier ring up the sale, hand her the dollar, take the change she offers you, put it in your pocket, let her put the milk in a bag, take the bag, get on your bike and ride it back home, hand me the bag with the milk in it, and give me my change.”
That’s the way you have to talk to a computer: giving a specific instruction for each individual step, in language the computer can understand. That’s the reason there are “programming languages.”
So, if I wanted to rig a voting machine so my candidate would win, here is one way to do it, written in sidewalk English:
1. Previous votes for Candidate Doe = 0. Go to line 2.
2. Previous votes for Candidate Roe = 0. Go to line 3.
3. Wait for a voter to register a vote in either line 4 or line 5, then follow the rest of the instruction in that line.
4. Display "Register your vote for Doe: [ ]". If a vote is registered here, go to line 6.
5. Display "Register your vote for Roe: [ ]". If a vote is registered here, go to line 9.
6. The cumulative votes for Doe = the votes in line 1 + 1.
7. Clear the vote from line 4.
8. If there are votes in line 6, go to line 1 and record the number.
9. The cumulative votes for Roe = the votes in line 2 + 1.
10. Clear the vote from line 5.
11. Go to line 2 and record the number from line 9.
12. At the end of the day, display the numbers in lines 1 and 2.
13. If the number in line 6 is larger than the number in line 9, show the number in line 6 for Doe and the number in line 9 for Roe, but if the number in line 9 is larger than the number in line 6, show the number in line 9 for Doe and the number in line 6 for Roe.
With that instruction in line 13 I have rigged this voting machine in one easy step. But if there is no paper record of the individual votes, you won’t know that unless you can read the line of code in the computer that caused it to happen. And I am the only one allowed to examine my machine to read the code.
And that my friends, is the reason anyone can rig an electronic voting machine, and thus an election, and get away with it. And that’s only one way among an uncounted number of possible ways!
If I were your political opponent, would you use my voting machine—and trust me not to put in line 13?!
--Bob Hartsell, Ph.D.