The Volokh Conspiracy - HBO's "Hacking Democracy":

HBO's "Hacking Democracy," a documentary that purports to show that "the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local school board contests to the presidential race" premiered last night. I haven't had the chance to watch it yet, but I hope to in the next few days. Votelaw's Ed Still says "It's a thrill a minute -- well, maybe every few minutes."

According to this report (also via Votelaw), Diebold claims that the documentary is inaccurate and asked HBO to pull it from the air. See, for instance, here and here. HBO stands by the accuracy of the program. Given that Diebold's pre-broadcast complaints appear were based upon their "understanding" of the program's content -- rather than viewing the program itself -- I will be curious to see what, if any, post-airing response Diebold produces. (Diebold's releases on this and related issues are available here.)

Like Glenn Reynolds, I don't see what's so wrong about paper ballots, and if "Hacking Democracy" lives up to the hype, I expect I will hold ever more strongly to this view.

	[Jonathan Adler, November 3, 2006 at 8:01am] Trackbacks HBO's "Hacking Democracy": HBO's "Hacking Democracy," a documentary that purports to show that "the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local school board contests to the presidential race" premiered last night. I haven't had the chance to watch it yet, but I hope to in the next few days. Votelaw's Ed Still says "It's a thrill a minute -- well, maybe every few minutes." According to this report (also via Votelaw), Diebold claims that the documentary is inaccurate and asked HBO to pull it from the air. See, for instance, here and here. HBO stands by the accuracy of the program. Given that Diebold's pre-broadcast complaints appear were based upon their "understanding" of the program's content -- rather than viewing the program itself -- I will be curious to see what, if any, post-airing response Diebold produces. (Diebold's releases on this and related issues are available here.) Like Glenn Reynolds, I don't see what's so wrong about paper ballots, and if "Hacking Democracy" lives up to the hype, I expect I will hold ever more strongly to this view.