Free Access

Diebold. Is that pronounced “dee-bold” or “dye-bold”? Whatever…I did run across some interesting information regarding this controversial company. You should already know that they are the leading (only?) computer voting machine company around and you may have heard that they are also managed by a group of fanatical republicans, one of whom promised the president that he would deliver the votes in 2004.

One of the Diebold Company’s more controversial moves came when they claimed that it was extremely difficult to provide a paper trail for votes cast using their machines. This claim (when your local market can identify you and everything you bought, and tell you how much more you need to buy before you can claim your free latte...all on a paper receipt!) was an obvious lie.

Now I read that Diebold uses MS Access software. “The vulnerability and the ability to "manipulate votes" occur because the GEMS software uses the public Microsoft Access database software to store vote totals in a separate data file.”
Now that is scary! Access is great database software to use if you want to keep track of your CD collection, or something of that nature. No one should ever use it for sensitive data.

Most large corporations use database software that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is a reason for the high cost; security. Access can be purchased for hundreds of dollars. There is also a reason for that.