The Open Voting Foundation has discovered that those notorious Diebold electronic voting machines can be made to behave in a completely different manner than the tested and certified models with the flip of a simple switch. 

If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver.” This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if the voter’s choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.

You will recall that the CEO of Diebold, Wally O'Dell, pledged millions to the Bush campaign ahead of the 2004 election and told the president that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year," just as the company was pushing its paperless voting system on the state oh Ohio - a crucial swing state.

The machines have had spectacular failure rates, and Diebold has repeatedly resisted calls for it to supply a paper trail for its systems, so votes can be verified in the case of a dispute. O'Dell has since left the company, but there is reason for cynicism still - Diebold controls half the market for electronic voting machines and in the wake of the 2000 fiasco in Florida (think butterfly ballots), Congress is pushing states to invest in  computerizing elections.

Concerns have resulted in more careful testing and certifcation of the machines to prevent errors, but this new discovery makes the entire certification process moot. A simple flick of a switch makes the machines eminently hackable and elections supremely fixable. Be afraid.

(Thanks to BoingBoing.)