VeriSign and Secure Internet Voting

Bucky Katt writes "VeriSign announced Monday that it will provide key components of a system designed to let Americans abroad cast absentee votes over the Internet."

Comments

OMG

[tbase]

So we won't have to have physical access to log in and change votes with MS Access and no password? For the love of God, when is the mainstream press going to pick up on this?!?!?!?

This is going to be a fiasco

[TerryAtWork]

The USA is handing over democracy (in a small but growing way) to a no-vision for-profit firm that has a proven lack of ethics.

This is going to get worst before it gets better.

This could be good

[slimak]

Naturally most /.ers are going to complain about this for various reasons generally involving security. However, this could be a good thing IF a GOOD system is actually developed (now or in the future). I for one would love to be able to vote from the comfort of my home/work/cafe without having to wait in lines. Overall voter turnout could be boosted.

Chances are though that this first pass will not be great, which will slow/stop future development due to cries of the public for and end to insecure online voting.

Re:This could be good

[tsg]

I for one would love to be able to vote from the comfort of my home/work/cafe without having to wait in lines. Overall voter turnout could be boosted.

People who don't care enough to vote don't care enough to be informed. Pointing at "voter apathy" and claiming it's the problem is extremely short sighted. Voter apathy is a symptom, not the cause. Making voting easier to get better turnout is just going to ensure that more uninformed people are going to vote. I can't see how this is a good thing. Make people care about the issues and they'll find the way to the polls all by themselves.

better?

[twitter]

This is going to get worst before it gets better.

How do you think things will get better? There are few if any local independent news papers because they have all been crushed by big coroprate owned national broadcasters and "news" services like MSNBC. The same people have made sure that individuals have a hard time publishing on the internet, so everyone has to go through providers or portals where they can be shut down. Now the loop is being closed with black box voting, which is impossible to audit. Even if you could tell people the truth, they won't be able to do anything about it.

Vote against this kind of thing NOW.

Only in limited cases...

[pangian]

Notice that the article only talks about using Internet voting as an alternative to absentee voting for citizens abroad and only in U.S. government agencies where secure Internet-enables voting stations can be set up. This is good .

Internet voting on a large scale will never take place due to logistical [for lack of a better word] rather than technical reasons. Electoral law requires that your vote be made in a manner that is free from influence (intimidation or vote buying). This is controlled by ensuring that voting goes on in select locations where campaigning is not permitted. Even campaign posters within sight of a voting station must be taken down.

With Internet voting, essentially anyplace could be a voting station. I could set up a little voting party for my friends and let them vote on my computer. Don't mind that there is paraphernalia all around for my candidate, or that I'm looking over your shoulder. After the party, laptop and cell in hand, I could help all the little old ladies in my neighborhood vote too.

[Your sig here]

Re:Replace the Electoral College w/ Folger's Cryst

[bladernr]

Malaysia uses a pure democracy form of government. A friend of mine from there, who is ethnic Chinese, tells me that open-discrimination is perfectly legal by the majority Malay against the minority Chinese. (there is even something about the minority subsidizing housing for the majority, even though the majority is financially better off)

The PM of Malaysia is quoted as saying the duty of the democracy is to better the majority. Strictly speaking, that is true in that form of government.

That is why I support the Republic form is government. Republic is representative rule, not majority rule. Each stakeholder in the US system should be represented. Arguments about the rights of any minority make sense only in a Republic. In a democracy, who cares about minorities? We all vote in self-interest, and majority rules.

To repeat an oft repeated quote, Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner.