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VeriSign and Secure Internet Voting

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the oh-this-will-work-out-great dept.

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."

4 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Electronic voting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Why is there such an obsession with electronic voting.

    Yes, the algorithms for secure anonymous fraud-proof voting exist, but I don't think the implementations are up to the task yet - in particular, if they cannot be independently verified before, during and after the elections.

    There's just too much potential for a fraud to justify dropping the good old pencil-in-the-number-of-your-candidate method.

  2. Replace the Electoral College w/ Folger's Crystals by sleight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And, for our next trick, we absolutely won't replace the electoral college with internet voting. Even if it were secure, it would take the power out of the hands of the elite and give it to the people.

    However, wouldn't it be nice if we (the US, if you can forgive my inclusive pronoun) were a democracy instead of a republic? If internet voting is good for the goose, then shouldn't it be good for the gander? We just need to replace those old and moldy voting booths with shiny new internet-enabled booths.

    Of course, as a programmer, I'll believe the voting scheme is "secure" when monkeys fly out of my butt.

  3. They count absentee ballots? by SaXisT4LiF · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As I recall, none of the absentee ballots made any difference in the 2000 presidential election.

    Someone must have thought, "Lets let absentee voters vote electronically, we're just going to throw out their votes anyway!"

    Nothing lost, nothing gained.

    --
    Fight or flight its all the same
    Live to die another day
    --Ryan
  4. actually an improvement by pangian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While I'm usually skeptical of Internet voting, I'm actually in favor of it in the limited case of American personnel overseas, because it is better than the current system. Presently, most absentee votes don't even get counted, unless the margin of victory is less than number of absentee ballots. While this is technically accurate and efficient, it kinda sucks to be one of those people who's vote is never even considered.

    On the security side, I hope that VeriSign avoids Diebold's mistake (with electronic voting machines, which is different from Internet voting) and makes the source code and security procedures public for scrutiny.