Friday, August 14th, 2009

Voting Machine Update

America is transitioning from mechanical voting machines to electronic voting machines. The key to an electronic voting machine is its software--which is often complicated and not well tested. Computer scientist Ka-Ping Yee describes how he created the prototype voting machine software he calls Pvote. He aimed to streamline the code using an open source programming language called Python--find out what that could mean for voter confidence. Ka-Ping Yee was interviewed in Chicago's Union Station in March 2008. (Credits: Produced by Carl Flatow) See More Videos

Computer scientist Hovav Shacham discovered a way to hack into older, seemingly more secure voting machines. He discusses the “hack-ability” of electronic voting systems, election security and the best way to run an election with the machines on hand.