[LINK] electronic voting is coming

[Richard Chirgwin]

Kim,

Endorsing all you say, but plucking this out for further discussion:

> Voting is the only time, the moment, in our oligarchical system where
> we actually get to take part, to be part of our democracy.  So it's
> critical we protect it.  Computers can so easily be corrupted.  That
> said, the thing I do see is that a trusted electronic voting system
> might allow us to vote more often. To be able to do it more often
> would make our system more democratic.  Would this be a good idea?  I
> don't know.  Wisdom of crowds or madness of mobs?

Yep. And paper allows participation in the *whole* of the democratic
process by ordinary citizens. We can (if we wish) volunteer to count,
join parties and be scrutineers, and so on.

Paper is inclusive. Computers are exclusive, demanding that the citizen
entrust the process to an elite. The reason that vendors and enthusiasts
like computer voting is that they believe themselves already to be part
of the elite. And we don't want to entrust the franchise to people who
don't understand the Internet, do we?

So. To all enthusiast geeks: keep your undemocratic, "get with the
program" hands off my vote.

RC


Kim Holburn wrote:
> There are so many problems with electronic voting.  Haven't we  
> discussed this all before?
> 
> The biggest question of all is why do it?  What is the problem you are  
> trying to solve?   The Economist article talks about paper ballots  
> with some clever trickery.  If you're going to use paper ballots  
> what's wrong with the old kind?  Why change?
> 
> Computers have so many avenues to allow invisible scamming of the  
> system.  So much work to make them safe to use for voting.
> 
> If you're going to move to all electronic systems then you need to  
> have cryptographic systems in place to allow proper audit trails.  It  
> can be done electronically but it's not simple.  Simple is to have the  
> machines print a ballot which is checked by the voter and have a  
> verified paper trail, but then again, why use computers?  What's wrong  
> with the current paper system?
> 
> If you're going to do without the paper trail then you have to use  
> complex cryptographic systems and you have to be able to prove every  
> part of all of the systems.  All the code of the voting machines would  
> have to be open and viewable by the public.  Not just voting machines  
> but all computers involved in the tallying process.  (Hmmmmm....)
> 
> In Holland touch screen systems are illegal because they radiate  
> signals that can be read by people some distance away who could render  
> a vote non-secret.
> 
> In the US it's all starting to unravel.  How would you solve what  
> these guys in Kentucky did with their voting computers?  Use paper  
> ballots, they are simply not subject to the same scams:
> http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7001
> 
>> KY Circuit court judge, county clerk and election officials among  
>> eight indicted for gaming elections in 2002, 2004, 2006
> 
> 
> I seem to recall the ACT has had some electronic voting for a number  
> of years.
> 
> Voting is the only time, the moment, in our oligarchical system where  
> we actually get to take part, to be part of our democracy.  So it's  
> critical we protect it.  Computers can so easily be corrupted.  That  
> said, the thing I do see is that a trusted electronic voting system  
> might allow us to vote more often. To be able to do it more often  
> would make our system more democratic.  Would this be a good idea?  I  
> don't know.  Wisdom of crowds or madness of mobs?
> 
> 
> Kim
> 
> On 2009/Mar/18, at 7:40 PM, David Goldstein wrote:
> 
>> The Economist has an interesting story on a number of initiatives  
>> around the world to deal with security issues in variations of  
>> electronic voting.
>>
>> A really secret ballot
>> A variety of schemes to encrypt ballot papers should reassure voters  
>> and help to make elections more secure
>> http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12673211
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
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