High-Tech Voting 'Can't Be Trusted,' Researchers Warn

NewsMax.com ^ | 7/30/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[zeugma]

Now having said that, I DO think electronic voting should create a paper or physical record of every vote, and that any electronic votes which cannot be verified against that paper record should be discarded.

Absolutely. Physical ballots are a must in any election. Anyone who thinks internet voting is a good idea has no concept of how difficult it would be to create a system that couldn't be gamed on a massive scale. The cryptographic protocols necessary for internet voting are understood, and they aren't easy to implement.

[Tatze]

That is the only real solution. The machine must print a paper ballot that can be checked and then dropped in the ballot box. Closing procedures for the precinct would include running the totals on the voting machines, just like they do now, but also counting the paper ballots like they used to do. The two totals better be the same.

[Believe_In_The_Singularity]

I agree with both of you. But a cash machine could produce a receipt, and the cryptographic protocols/security are already in place.

Could'nt this work?

BITS

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If we ever come to another 2000-style election debacle and there aren't even any chads to spill, God help us all. There won't be a legitimate winner and the catfight will go on for months...years...until the Supreme Court stops it and then aww, there y'all go again.

One of the attributes of a good test is that its results are unambiguous. Cheaters prefer ambiguity because then they can argue forever and maybe sneak by. In point of fact, the Florida system was highly unambiguous and reliable. The Democrats fabricated reasons to challenge the results. In previous elections Florida courts has rejected the very arguments that Bois et. al. were presenting. To their credit judges in the lower courts generally rejected his arguments. It was the Florida Supreme court which invalidated written law and substituted its own results-oriented interperation of Florida law. The existence and reliability of ATMs indicates that reliable electronic transactions are possible.

[Sender]

The existence and reliability of ATMs indicates that reliable electronic transactions are possible.

Reliable electronic voting is indeed possible, I just want some low-tech physical backup in case of rat tomfoolery. After all, the ATM will only let you have as much money (the physical record) as your bank account says you have (the electronic record). If you somehow could hack your bank account to say that it contains a billion dollars or zero dollars, there would be ways to follow up on other sources of info (payroll, deposits, checks, transfers etc) to verify what had transacted. There must be some kind of physical record of every vote as well...just in case the vote count says a billion...or zero...in your voting district.