Hi Space_Monkey,
I don’t know what kind of hoops you could have to jump through to get the source code.
Suppose you got the source code. Then you would have to write a program that could be uploaded onto each memory pack that would run a zero report, but then return incorrect results (flip votes as the ballots are fed into the machine by voters and scanned).
First catch is, you would have to physically infiltrate the warehouse where these memory packs are loaded with election data and INDIVIDUALLY upload your malware onto each one, in person. There are nearly 600 of them in San Francisco. There is an incredibly transparent process for doing this; it’s not done in secret by anonymous individuals; it’s done by union-represented San Francisco civil servants with nothing to gain but a LOT to lose, and it’s overseen by voting machine vendor support staff, AND can be observed by any member of the public.
Suppose someone was still able to load malware onto each one and on Election Day, flipped enough votes to sway an Election. The next catch, is after Election Day, by California Election Code, a random selection of precincts are drawn, and the paper ballots are counted by hand. No one could know ahead of time which random precincts would be selected so you could not exclude them from your malware. If the manual tally was found to be wildly off from the scanning machine results, it would result in a full manual recount.
Those are the safeguards I can recall off the top of my head, but there may be more. It would still require a vast conspiracy.
