Electoral College Math

No matter which party you support, you might be able to go to bed a little earlier on Tuesday night if you follow this impressive infographic:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/02/us/politics/paths-to-the-white-house.html

The New York Times does the electoral college math and lets you know who must win which states to win US presidential election.

Hack the vote? (Ohio edition)

I wasn't too concerned about Romney relatives indirectly owning shares in voting machine manufacturers, but this story does worry me:

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/15/2012/4783

Secret software updates installed in the computers that tabulate the county results in Ohio just before the election? And it's not tested or certified as required by law? I hope they get an injunction in time. I hope someone gets a copy of that update and makes it available for dissection by reputable computer security professionals.

A little thought should make it obvious that if you want to steal an election, fraudulent voters is a stupid plan, subverting individual machines is less stupid, but still potentially leaves many opportunities to be caught. On the other hand, a hack at the level where the votes are tabulated leaves very few machines with evidence of what happened. Such a hack might pass unnoticed unless the audit trail from the individual districts is strong and is kept available.