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Illinois county election site hacked

Caroline McCarthy Former Staff writer, CNET News
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
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Caroline McCarthy

Election Day in the United States is still a week off, but already troubling allegations of voting-related skulduggery are beginning to pop up.

This weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported that hackers broke into the Web site for the Election Commission in DuPage County, Ill., and made some not-so-nice modifications to the list of voter qualifications.

According to the Tribune article (registration required), the DuPage County site code had been hacked to indicate that homosexuals were barred from voting.

Officials changed the text of the site back, but the site was subsequently hacked again to read, "Your grandfather must have voted"--a throwback to Jim Crow laws in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

As of now, the source of the hack remains unknown.