Is Rubin Challenging Culver?
Diebold has shrugged off the Princeton hack/virus by claiming it was perpetrated on an old system. So what about their new system? Is it any better? A computer scientist at Johns Hopkins University takes a Show Me attitude:
Diebold’s defense against our paper and against Princeton’s paper is that we looked at an old version of the system. Well, my response to that is, let us look at the new one! Every election administrator in the country who uses the Diebold machines should want Ed’s team and mine to perform a security assessment of their voting technology. If Diebold’s system is not vulnerable to Princeton’s virus, then wouldn’t they welcome such a public analysis? If they fear that the new version is vulnerable, then isn’t that a question that needs to be answered publicly?
Iowa has the newer Diebold touchscreens. Secretary Culver has bragged endlessly about his administration of the Help America Vote Act, which paid for the new touchscreens. So, yes, he is vulnerable to Rubin’s challenge.
Will he answer it? He’s in a close race for higher office. He could use the favorable attention that would come his way if he accepted and passed this challenge. But he’d be putting his future in Diebold’s hands in more ways than one. Would you do that? I’m betting that Culver will try to ignore this.