And so it begins...

At 6 p.m. on November 4th (a.k.a., Super Tuesday), the Republican National Committee officials revealed that the firm is preparing for a legal battle centering around computerized voting fraud.

Forensicon Inc., a Chicago-based computer forensics company, was contacted last Thursday by a security firm lining up vendors to assist the Republican National Committee with consulting related to potential allegations of computerized voter fraud, says a representative.

It has been widely reported, say Forensicon executives, that electronic voting machines in many states are vulnerable to hacking by anyone with the right equipment and a few minutes' access to the voting machine. The lack of printed voting receipts in many of these systems leaves the election ballots in many areas vulnerable to rampant fraud and abuse, they continue.

"If the election returns vary significantly from the polled numbers in any precincts that proves crucial to the election outcome, I expect that a legal struggle over the validity of the election results will ensue," says Forensicon's president, Lee Neubecker.