Hacking the Voting System

1. What specific concerns do people have about the Diebold voting machines? Why are they not considered secure?

When Diebold was first offered the job to create voting machines, they had to make them within 5 months according to the Kennedy article. Futhermore, there was a concern the makers were altering the software in certain counties. As shown in the film, Diebold is a private company that wanted to keep its inner working in secrecy. They claimed that their information was stolen, but it was only that their system was not safe. As a result, this formed the concern that their system could be hacked. A major concern with the voting machines was that peopel would be able to go into the machines and add or subtract votes before the voting actually began and this was proven so. The machines are said to be unreliable and rigged to change votes. Many people in the film that voted were shown that the votes were being changed immediately. When trying to make a choice, the machine would automatically switch it. According to the article, the machines also provided "no paper trail, making it impossible to do a recount is something was to come out wrong."
These machines are not considered secure because they have been tested by hackers and found to be easily broken. Votes were easily changed, despite them being on a memory card and seeming normal. Diebold claimed to have fixed the problem, but it was still hackable. The machines were able to be broken into by an averae citizen which can easily skew votes in an important election.

2. If you were placed in charge of monitoring elections in California, what would you recommend to ensure a fair process?

If I were in charge, the fairest way seems to be the old-fashioned hand counting. While this is tedious, it does prove to, for the most part, work. I would put all votes into a machine that counts each vote one by one. The machines would be monitored by only the highest level security. If the votes have to be recounted, it also seems reasonable to have a selection of people do it, similar to a jury selection process.
Honestly, there is not easy way to make sure voting is fair because machines can malfunction and people are bias. It only seems reasonable to count and count again even if it takes a week. I do think it is necessary that voting be monitored more closely and private companies, like Diebold, not have such a big responsibility of America's power in their hands.