Simply Terrifying!

One key can crack open our "democratically elected" government... the key to the mini-bar?

The access panel door on a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine — the door that protects the memory card that stores the votes, and is the main barrier to the injection of a virus — can be opened with a standard key that is widely available on the Internet.

...We did a live demo for our Princeton Computer Science colleagues of the vote-stealing software described in our paper and video. Afterward, Chris Tengi, a technical staff member, asked to look at the key that came with the voting machine. He noticed an alphanumeric code printed on the key, and remarked that he had a key at home with the same code on it. The next day he brought in his key and sure enough it opened the voting machine.

This seemed like a freakish coincidence — until we learned how common these keys are.

...A little research revealed that the exact same key is used widely in office furniture, electronic equipment, jukeboxes, and hotel minibars. It’s a standard part, and like most standard parts it’s easily purchased on the Internet. We bought several keys from an office furniture key shop — they open the voting machine too. We ordered another key on eBay from a jukebox supply shop. The keys can be purchased from many online merchants.

Of course the C.E.O. of Diebold lived in a suburb of my hometown and actively campaigned and recruited donors for Bush in 2004 (including writing a letter promising to deliver GOP votes for the president) while simultaneously deploying his flawed machines all over Ohio thanks to an agreement with Ken Blackwell who is now running for governor.

My head hurts...