[LINK] New proposal for e-voting - Turnbull

[Tom Worthington]

On 10/09/13 16:28, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> ...I'd be interested in Linkers'
> view of the security of evoting now ...

The eVoting for the ACT elections has been working routinely now for 
years: http://blog.tomw.net.au/2008/10/voted-electronically-in-canberra.html

This was developed by Canberra company, Software Improvements, with Open 
Source provided so the integrity of the software could be checked (some 
ANU staff were involved in the project): 
http://www.elections.act.gov.au/elections_and_voting/electronic_voting_and_counting/development_of_the_system.

My preference would be to introduce a similar eVoting system for federal 
elections, but only at the larger polling booths, interstate and 
pre-poll booths. Voters could be encouraged to "pop in and vote while 
shopping" during the pre-poll period using the electronic system, while 
retaining the option of a paper ballot. That way about three quarters of 
the votes could be collected electronically, speeding up the count.

eVoting would also reduce accidental informal votes. The ACT system 
warns the voter if their vote will be informal, but still allows them to 
submit it. Perhaps an option should be added to allow the voter to type 
in a Tweet sized protest message, which would be collated and displayed 
on election night as a tag cloud. ;-)

Also the major parties would find it more difficult to bombard voters 
with advertisements at the last minute. I was thinking of having badges 
made to keep away politicians: "Don't bother me, I have already voted!". ;-)


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
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