Additionally, Bear said, the older optical scan machines are only vulnerable to such a hack when normal security procedures are not followed. 'Even the older memory cards are sealed in the machines after pre-election testing is complete,' he said. 'The cards are not given to third parties for 'hacking purposes' as was done during the demo. If any of the seals are broken or there is any hint of a security breach, the paper ballots can be recounted. Furthermore, many locations require a certain percentage of ballots be recounted even when there is no suspected fraud.'

He also said that Diebold regularly enhances its products to bolster security, and the enhancements are discussed, implemented, tested, certified and made available to customers. 'This situation is no different,' he said. 'Procedures are available which fully protect against this style of attack.'