Voting Machines Vs. Slot Machines

dmh20002 writes "Being a Nevada resident and knowing people who write code for slot machines, I was aware of the stringent measures the state of Nevada uses to vet the security of slot machines. The Nevada Gaming Control Board audits everything about them, both physical and soft, for unintentional and intentional security holes. Hearing the hoopla on voting machines, the contrast was obvious. Slot machines are about money, which is more important than votes, apparently. Now the state of Nevada is looking at electronic voting machines and plan to apply some of the same safeguards. Just applying the Nevada technical standards for gaming machines and vendors to voting machines would be a start, since there don't seem to be any standards for voting machines. A funny/sad sideline is that in Nevada, every year or two a programmer or engineer goes to jail for exploiting slot machines."

Comments

No new technology is required

[Transient0]

We can just put slot machines in voting booths and rather than running on a "Republican" or "Democrat" ticket, candidates can run as "Cherry," "Gold Bar," etc.

Hey, you might even get to vote for three different candidates, or WIN a triple vote.

Re:No new technology is required

[nizo]

Actually, voting machines are already like slot machines, except no matter what comes up you always lose.

Re:No new technology is required

[t0ny]

A funny/sad sideline is that in Nevada, every year or two a programmer or engineer goes to jail for exploiting slot machines.

By contrast, explioting voters will get you elected president.

Never happen

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it one of the Nevada rules that convicted criminals can't have anything to do with the gambling industry?

Which would remove nearly half the politicians & lobbyists :)

Audit trail

[So Called Expert]

When I'm in Vegas, I want to know the odds aren't cheated by the house. I have to trust that some government oversight ensures that the slots haven't been rigged to make me lose more than the odds claim I should.

Similarly, I should know that some standards and enforcement is in place when I vote. Otherwise, I'm putting my trust in someone I don't know and who has interests that are probably different than mine.

Voting should not be about trust, it should be about results. Any third party should be able to verify results, regardless of their interest.

Re:Audit trail

[Anonymous Coward]

And think about this. Every time you interact with the government, they want to see your ID, from a routine traffic stop, to buying a fishing license. The only time they don't ask is when I go vote in Maryland. What's up with that? They just ask for the name of whatever dead person your are pretending to be.

Re:Audit trail

[segment]

Actually there are a shitload of rules in place to ensure the odds are high but the casino doesn't cheat you. Its pretty much regulated. As for the voting machines, they too have methods of making things secure, and a lot of research is done on the subject e.g:

A public key cryptosystem and a signature scheme based on di.. (context) - ElGamal - 1985
Receipt-free secret-ballot elections (context) - Benaloh, Tuinstra - 1994
A practical secret voting scheme for large scale election (context) - Fujioka, Okamoto et al. - 1992
Multi-authority secret ballot elections with linear work - Cramer, Franklin et al. - 1996
Verifiable secret-ballot elections (context) - Benaloh - 1987
Universally verifiable mix-net with verification work indepe.. (context) - Abe - 1998
Designated verifier proofs and their applications - Jakobsson, Sako et al. - 1996
Elections with unconditionally- secret ballots and disruptio.. (context) - Chaum - 1988
How to prevent buying of votes in computer elections (context) - Niemi, Rendall - 1994
Public-key cryptosystems based on discrete logarithms residu.. (context) - Paillier - 1999
Some remarks on a receipt-free and universally verifiable mi.. - Michels, Horster - 1996
Receipt-free electronic voting schemes for large scale elect.. - Okamoto - 1997
A secure an optimally efficient multi-authority election sch.. (context) - Cramer, Gennaro et al. - 1997
Receipt-freeness in largescale elections without untappable .. - Magkos, Burmester et al. - 2001
An Improvement on a practical secret voting scheme (context) - Ohkubo, Miura et al. - 1999

Never mind slot machines

[Passacaglia]

How about state lottery systems and machines? Almost nationwide, these outfits are audited & controlled to a degree which shows where our real priorities are.

Re:Heh...

[TheCarp]

And hence... diebold.

If someone has enough interest they will break it. I supose thats really the morla of the story. And if you do come up with a way to make the voting booth secure... well then they will just run candidates in the two most major parties that are each kind of non-offensive in their own ways but when you boiul them down are basically exactly the same....

Oh wait... they have been doing that for years.

Anyone else tired of haviong to choose between the idiot sons of the rich?

-Steve

Building Security

[ChicoLance]

I work as a programmer in the gaming industry, and there is a lot of security in place, but it all makes since. Before I can work, I need to get a state "gaming card" which says that I've had my background check, and I'm generally not a menice to society. The machines have security in place to know if something is wrong (eprom signatures, various locks). Everything we develop also goes through two or three other independent verification agencies make sure it's all legit.

We're proud of making a secure device (at least as secure as we can make it), and it's in ours and our customer's interest to do so. Most of the security built in isn't necessarily hard to do, but it does take planning, foresight, and desire to integrate it all with the final product.

I hope that a voting machine company can say the same.

Don't trust Diebold? Use absentee ballots.

[RexDevious]

This is a solution from Bartcop.com, and it's both clever and simple. Absentee ballots ARE a paper trail. So if you're worried that voting machines aren't going to count your vote, and won't leave a paper trail which would let election officials catch them at it, vote via absentee ballot and leave your OWN paper trail.