April 19, 2024

The Future of DRE Voting Machines

Last week at the EVT/WOTE workshop, Ari Feldman and I unveiled a new research project that we feel represents the future of DRE voting machines. DRE (direct-recording electronic) voting machines are ones where voters cast their ballots by pressing buttons or using a touch screen, and the primary record of the votes is stored in a computer memory. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that such machines can be reprogrammed to steal votes, so when we got our hands on a DRE called the Sequoia AVC Edge, we decided to do something different: we reprogrammed it to run Pac-Man.

As more states move away from using insecure DREs, there’s a risk that thousands of these machines will clog our landfills. Fortunately, our results show that they can be productively repurposed. We believe that in the not-so-distant future, recycled DREs will provide countless hours of entertainment in the basements of the nation’s nerds.

To see how we did it, visit our Pac-Man on the AVC Edge voting machine site.

Comments

  1. In my home country (north Europe) we can vote by using our mobile phones (only clients with contracts). We have to identify ourselves with an id card and then we can vote. This saves so much time and it’s secure… double voting hasn’t occurred yet
    Ginger

  2. Mithrandir says

    Found this site via a link on Wikipedia about the “series of tubes” comment. Excellent site! Keep on defending our freedom!