[taxcontrol]

I am of the opinion that:

1) FEC should sponsor the development of an open source, public code only, suite of election software. (voting roll, ballot tracking, ballot tabulation, reporting, etc)

2) That the code should undergo a regular challenge where vulnerabilities are exposed and penetration of the system is tested on a bi-annual frequency.

3) There be a law passed that requires the use of the open source voting system.

[Political Junkie Too]

Last November, I posted outsourcing election tallying to the credit card companies.

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Here is a high-tech solution.

Let a company like Visa or MasterCard manage the elections.

The process would go like this:

1. Citizen registers to vote.
2. County processes the voter registration.
3. Credit card company sends a voter card to the citizen. The voter's PIN is sent in a separate mailing within 90 days of the next election. This card is a permanent voter registration until such time as the voter leaves the jurisdiction or dies.
4. For each election:
   • For in-person voting:
     1. The voter checks in and swipes their voter card into the reader. They enter their PIN.
     2. If the PIN is accepted, the voter signs the precinct log book and receives a local voting sheet, computer code, or whatever device is used to vote. The PIN is marked as used.
     3. The voter proceeds to vote.
   • For absentee/mail-in voting:
     1. The voter completes the absentee/mail-in ballot and signs the ballot. The voter also writes their voter card number and PIN on the ballot.
     2. The voter seals the ballot in a return envelope and signs the envelope.
     3. The voter mails in the ballot or drops it in a ballot box.
     4. The ballot is received by the county and entered into the tabulation system. The PIN is marked as used.
5. The voter receives a confirmation notice that their ballot was processed. This could be either via text message, automated phone call, or direct mail based on the voter's designation when registering.
6. The credit card company tabulates the ballots immediately, using the same technology that processes billions of credit card transactions each day.
7. Election results are published within two hours after the polls close in a state. The credit card company nullifies all the PIN numbers.
8. Ninety days prior to the next election, the credit card company resets all the PINs to new numbers and mails the new PINs to voter for use in the next election.

This should make it very difficult harvest ballots, since PIN numbers can't be made up or reused. The voter will know if their absentee/mail-in ballot was processed or not based on whether the PIN was used or not.

The technology exists to do this now.

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-PJ

[fuzzylogic]

I used to agree with this. My main concern is somebody or some group, backed by massive funding, being able to find a vulnerability to specifically NOT disclose it. Then use it as desired.

It’s just far more difficult to commit widespread fraud with paper ballots and manual counting, with lots of eyes. Otherwise, it can be done with a click, seen by nobody.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I’m 100% in agreement.

I DO worry about putting the government (FEC) in charge of developing such software, though. The government is probably less trustworthy than Dominion.

[zeugma]

1) FEC should sponsor the development of an open source, public code only, suite of election software. (voting roll, ballot tracking, ballot tabulation, reporting, etc)

2) That the code should undergo a regular challenge where vulnerabilities are exposed and penetration of the system is tested on a bi-annual frequency.

3) There be a law passed that requires the use of the open source voting system.

It is easy to go even farther. Image used to initially load the machine can be an ISO, and the SHASUM of the ISO can be published and validated by any person with a laptop with a CD Drive. Similarly, any binary used should have a public signature that can be validated. You can even have software what will automatically check binaries and shut down the machine if tampering is detected.

None of this is rocket science.I would also recommend that the operating system of the machine be an SE-enabled version of Linux.

Any device with the correct hardware specs should be able to act as a testing platform, and ALL code MUST be OPEN SOURCE.

If you want us to trust computers, they all must be completely transparent in all aspects. Any hidden components are instantly suspect.