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A Secure and Verifiable Voting System

Posted by michael on from the he-makes-it-look-easy dept.

meese writes "The cryptographer David Chaum, through discussion with top cryptographers such as Ron Rivest, has designed a secure and verifiable voting system. One of the goals of his design is that anyone can verify that votes were tabulated correctly. It's good to see real security/crypto people working on this problem. They also have a press release."

13 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Secure voting system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Damn! Now there's no way I can become the president!

  2. Re:Combination.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Closed source + Paper green = secure voting.

    They've figured out already.

  3. Re:How about by Hank+Reardon · · Score: 2, Funny
    ...get your fat ass away from monday night football for 30 minutes, drive down to the polling location, and vote.

    Hmmm... Do you subscribe to the "Vote Early, Vote Often" theory? :)

    I vote on Tuesday, personally...

    --
    There's so little difference between politics and jihad lately...
  4. Good, now step two by ultranova · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now that you have a decent electronic voting system, you can start developing decent electronic candidates.

    After all, if the choices are

    1) Skynet takes over by force
    2) Skynet takes over by vote

    I, for one, prefer the vote method. Besides, could it really do any worse than the current leaders ?

    Seriously, thought, we might want to turn the running of day-to-day things over to an artificial intelligence someday in the future, because it would be less prone to stupid mistakes and corruption than humans, and because it would free us to think about the overall picture.

    I wonder if, in time, we humans will form some kind of aristocracy, ruling over hordes of intelligent (but willess) machines...

    I, for one, welcome our new artificial intelligence underlings.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  5. Re:How about by switcha · · Score: 5, Funny
    You get your fat ass away from monday night football for 30 minutes, drive down to the polling location, and vote.

    The fogies in Fla missed voting correctly by about a 1/4 inch. You just missed voting correctly by 24 hours.

    --
    You know what? ... A little club soda *did* get that out!
  6. Oh, and by the way... by Geek+Boy · · Score: 1, Funny

    patent pending
    patent pending
    patent pending

  7. Designed by Cryptographers, not Committees! by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    So a couple of noted cryptographers have come up with a secure, verifiable, electronic voting system and put the design out in the open for anyone to use. Like that was a challenge.

    Like, hey, who the hell does this Rivest guy think he is, and what (apart from this stupid "Ph.D" stuff in "Computer Science" or "Mathematics" or "Cryptography", such a small title he has) makes him think he's any smarter than Penelope Bonsall, who's got a way cooler title "Director of the Office of Election Administration at the Federal Election Commission".

    "The computer scientists are saying, 'The machinery you vote on is inaccurate and could be threatened; therefore, don't go. Your vote doesn't mean anything.'

    Penelope Bonsall, Director of the Office of Election Administration at the Federal Election Commission, A Very Important Person Who's Smarter And Better Than Those Goofy Computer Scientists Because She Has A Bigger Title And Burns Through More Taxpayer Dollars In A Week Than That Rivest Dude Probably Generated In His Entire Working Career!

    Rivest's system is clearly unworkable. Where's the wining and dining of sales reps? Where's the backroom deals involving hookers and cocaine? Where's the vendor-lock-in? Where are the service contracts and extra government departments required to oversee them? Oh, sure, Rivest can lay the smack down on "where's the beef" when it comes to building a secure and verifiable electronic voting system, but where's the pork?

  8. US democracy struggle by Spellbinder · · Score: 2, Funny

    Game Over!!
    Insert Coin

    --


    stop supporting microsoft with pirating their software!!!!!
  9. Re:Excellent by E.S+Taog · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey, this is the only website in America that's not afraid to tell the truth, that everything is just fine.

  10. It will never work! by SQLz · · Score: 2, Funny

    With this system how are they supposed to fix elections? This will never work.

  11. yes by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny

    presumably, they will be doing the voting.

  12. Look, I'm not a very smart guy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Oh, sorry.

    Look, I'm not a very smart guy. Actually, I'm socially backward, and I spent a lot of my youth drunk. For myself, I would rather be relaxing on my Texas ranch. However, my father told me to help his oil and weapons buddies get rich.

    There's no way I'm going to be elected again without Diebold's and my brother's help, and maybe the Supreme Court's help. So, please, let Diebold be bold. Hehee.

    -- G. W. Bush

  13. Re:openvoting.org is a super nova of sunshine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I know this is offtopic, but I can't resist:

    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.

    I have never heard a better argument for the benefits of spit vs. swallow!!

    ...now I gotta figure out how to bring this up in conversation with my g/f...