Princeton computer science professor and now-well known academic hacker of e-voting systems, Ed Felten, reports on his blog...
His article offers the details of the latest findings, but for the disturbing --- and too-often hilarious --- background on this incredible continuing scandal...
On Super Tuesday, Sequoia's AVC Advantage touch-screen voting machines failed to boot up in many places, forcing the Governor himself to wait 45 minutes before he could cast his vote. After Super Tuesday it was found that the Sequoia AVC Advantage has misreported voter turnouts.
Sequoia offered a feeble excuse for the failure, without offering evidence to support it, which blamed both voters and poll-workers instead of themselves for the multi-million dollar embarrassment. County election officials across NJ then unanimously called for an independent investigation of the machines by Princeton computer profs Felten and Andrew Appel.
Sequoia then threatened legal action against both the professors and the counties should they undertake such a technical review of their self-described "tamperproof" machines. The counties folded to the company's strong-arm tactics, while hoping either the state AG or SoS would commission such a review.
Sequoia's website was then hacked, but not before they could release misleading propaganda claiming they loved third party independent reviews so much they were willing to then sponsor one on their own by selecting and paying an unknown "independent company" named "Kwaidan Consulting" to do one on behalf of Sequoia.
Kwaidan was then revealed by The BRAD BLOG to be no more than a "blonde nymphomaniac"-seeking babe-magnet named Mike Gibbons, who, after being commissioned by Sequoia for this important analysis, suddenly discovered a new-found love for George Bush, Jesus Christ, Albert Einstein, and the U.S. constitution. The babes and the Jim Beam would have to wait.
Much as those voters and election officials in Pennsylvania, set to use the exact same machines two weeks from now in the upcoming, all-important, Democratic Primary, will have to wait to see if the machines work at all. Then, of course, they will simply have to trust the reported results, no matter what the machines tell them, since it is strictly impossible to discern whether any single vote cast on them was actually recorded as any single voter intended.
UPDATE 4/8/08: Sequoia touch-screens ordered subpoenaed and examined by NJ Judge. Breaking details here...