Panel: E-voting vulnerable

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How much do you trust...

...your state's election officials? AFAIC, the source code has to be publicly available. If the security mechanisms are so weak that the code has to be kept secret to protect them, they aren't good enough.

Besides, there are two questions here: integrity *and* secrecy (you tend to give the latter short shrift). I've little doubt that a system for Internet voting could be devised that would be at least as fraud-resistant as what we have now in most polling places. I have severe doubts, however, that such a system could adequately guarantee secrecy, which in my book, is at least as important.

Vote buying and voter intimidation are the reasons why the Australian ballot was devised in the first place, and why its adoption was so fiercely resisted by political machines at the end of the 19th century. Their uses in rigging elections are well known and at least as effective as outright fraud. A voting scheme that insures ballot integrity while compromising secrecy is thus of little value.

Posted by: John L. Ries   Posted on: 10/10/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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