HBO film draws Diebold's fury

If our votes aren't safe, then neither is our democratic society.

That's the premise behind a documentary called "Hacking Democracy," which HBO plans to broadcast on Thursday night. The cable network describes the 90-minute movie as a "cautionary" tale that seeks to shed some light on perceived vulnerabilities in computer software used in electronic voting machines.

The story unfolds through the eyes of Seattle-based activist Bev Harris, founder of a watchdog group called Black Box Voting. In an online synopsis, HBO makes the case that Harris' research "proved that the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking."

Expect to see appearances from a number of politicians, activists and computer security experts that Harris met along the way, including Johns Hopkins University professor Avi Rubin and Finnish security analyst Harri Hursti, who reportedly managed this spring to hack memory cards used in Diebold machines in Leon County, Fla., and skew votes cast during a test run.

Diebold this week said the film isn't fit for broadcast. In a widely circulated press release, the Ohio-based voting machine company assailed HBO for what it called "egregious" errors and misrepresentations about the firm's involvement in past e-voting debacles.

In a letter to HBO CEO Chris Albrecht dated Oct. 30 (click for PDF), Diebold president David Byrd called on the network to run a statement on its Web site addressing Diebold's concerns and to include a 30-second disclaimer before, after, and during each run of the film indicating that HBO has "not verified the accuracy of any claims made in the movie." It was not immediately clear how HBO responded to those demands.

Television critics have variously described the documentary as "the year's most powerful documentary," "disturbing stuff," and "a somewhat torpid documentary that is itself complicated, flawed and messy."

If you want to decide for yourself, the flick is scheduled to air at 9 p.m. PST (8 p.m. CST) on Thursday.