Voting Machines Article

• Summary: This article describes how Diebold voting machines can be hacked. The hacking process is easy for people to do, which puts the voting process in danger. The hackers are able to manipulate the machines by sneaking into polling places before election day and placing alien electronics in the voting machines which then intercept and change individuals' votes. This is problematic because many states will use the Diebold voting machines in the 2012 election.
• Stakeholders: The stakeholders are the voters, the hackers, and the presidential candidates. 
• Area of Impact: The area of impact is politics and government because the hackers can influence how many votes a candidate will receive. 
• Social/Ethical Issues: The social and ethical issue is security. The voting machines are not secure because they can easily be hacked. 
• Original intent of IT scenario: We have voting machines because it makes the voting process easier and faster for the voters. Also, the machines expedite the process of counting the votes because they are faster than humans. 
• Disadvantages of the scenario: A disadvantage of using voting machines is that it is easy to hack the machines and manipulate the votes. Hackers can change individual votes by placing alien electronics in the voting machines. 
• Solution: A solution to this problem is to design a more secure voting machine. To do this, designers can make the seals better and not use a standard blank key for every machine. Also, locks can prevent people from entering the polling places before election day.