Recently, multimedia conglomerate Vivendi Universal held a shareholders meeting in which the beleagured chief executive was denied stock options worth approximate $1.9 Billion. Searching for a scapegoat, Vivendi Universal now claims that the electronic voting system was "hacked" to result in more abstentations than normal. Newsbytes has the story (Vivendi Says Online Shareholder Voting 'Hacked'). Contrary to Newsbytes' headline, the voting system is not online but is a local wireless system. The only votes apparently affected were from stockholders who were present and using the system. You can read Vivendi's press release (Details on probable vote tampering at the Vivendi Universal shareholders meeting on April 24).
It may very well be true that some votes were miscounted, but the results may not have been changed. CNN Europe is somewhat skeptical, noting widespread shareholder opposition to the chairman's plans (Vivendi: Hackers wrecked vote). WIRED carries an even more skeptical Reuters wirestory undermining the plausibility of an attack by malicious hackers (Vivendi Votes Hacked? Ha: Experts).
Strangely enough, considering the importance of the multi-billion dollar decisions taking place in shareholder meetings, there was no apparent effort to create an auditable and tamper-resistant electronic voting system. An initial inspection of the now sequestered equipment has not revealed any abnormalities. Legal wranglings will decide whether another vote will or will not take place. But I ask, why are there no other records which can verify the recorded electronic votes? Where is the voting audit trail? What systems are in place to deal with such disputes over electronic votes? It seems to me that adopting such a weak system of electronic voting is a demonstration of Vivendi's incompetence.
What this story really demonstrates, however, is not the security or insecurity of electronic voting systems, but rather the character of those affected. It is quite possible that the voting system failed. It is even possible, though unlikely, that the system was hacked. These are reasonable claims to make. However, if I were a shareholder of Vivendi, I would be concerned about the paranoia demonstrated by the immediate claims of "hacking." Electronic systems fail. A reasonable CEO would investigate other reasons for failure before leaping to the conclusion that it must be the result of malicious "hackers."