E-voting components found in old furniture, sold on eBay

Published 9:32 am Tuesday, January 30, 2007

ATLANTA (AP) — The security of electronic voting is getting another look after voter access cards and ballot encoders were sold in an Internet auction.

About 40 voter access cards and three electronic ballot encoders for DeKalb County were bought earlier this month on the Web site eBay, Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel said. Seven supervisor’s cards, which are used to activate the encoders, were also up for bid.

The buyer turned out to be Diebold Election Systems, the manufacturers of Georgia’s electronic voting equipment. And all of the cards and encoders have been recovered, Handel said.

The cards apparently had been used only for training in mock elections and the encoders are obsolete; Georgia now uses electronic poll books to load voter access cards with the proper ballots.

But the incident shows a flaw in the security of electronic voting, which already inspires fears of hacking.

“While this equipment was not used in elections, this nonetheless underscores how important inventory control is, and we’re going to undertake extra measures to ensure security,” Handel said.

Handel said DeKalb County had renovated some of its offices and sold some old furniture. But officials apparently did not check the drawers. The buyer of the furniture found the cards and sold some of them on eBay.

Handel eventually contacted the seller, who voluntarily turned over the rest of the cards. Handel said she does not plan to pursue criminal charges against the man, an Atlanta area furniture dealer.

But Handel has ordered an independent audit of DeKalb County’s voting equipment and its security and custody procedures. And she said the State Election Board, which she chairs, will decide whether to sanction DeKalb County election officials.

Handel also planned to send a notice to county election supervisors, reminding them of the importance of securing election equipment.

In the meantime, she said the election board should adopt a policy on how to properly dispose of old equipment.

In a letter to Handel, DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones said he supports the audit and that the county “places the highest priority to maintaining the integrity and transparency of our election processes.”