Resumen
This article attempts to determine the influence a hypothetical adversary might have had on the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election in 2000. Under the mandate of the Help America Vote Act, precincts across the U.S. are upgrading their polling processes. The use of direct-recording electronic voting machines, or more generally, any electronic means of vote tabulation and reporting, raises the concern that a single, simple, subtle fraudulent change to the system software can take effect everywhere these machines are deployed. The adversary is able to select and change a small fixed number of votes per machine, representing the effect of modifying the voting software to misreport the results from each machine. This study calculates the number of states and electoral votes such an adversary might change, and conclude that the outcome of the election can be changed by manipulating one vote per voting machine. It is assumed that 90% of the total votes are cast by means of e-voting machines. The remaining 10% are assumed to be cast in some other way like hand-counted paper ballots, lever machines, and so forth, and do not contribute to the number of e-voting machines required.