Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

ACM on E-Voting

Posted by michael on from the nobody's-listening dept.

dadop writes "ACM's position is that while computer-based e-voting systems have the potential to improve the electoral process, such systems must embody careful engineering, strong safeguards, and rigorous testing in both their design and operation [something they don't do right now!]. Press release is here."

1 of 9 comments (clear)

  1. CACM lead story by dilger · · Score: 4, Informative

    "The problems and potentials of voting systems" is the lead story of this month's Communications of the ACM. Unfortunately, the content is not available online unless you are an ACM Portal subscriber or have access through a library. I've read a couple of the articles since my copy of CACM arrived earlier today, and it is very important stuff indeed.

    Here's a short excerpt from one article, "Small vote manipulations can swing elections":

    [Considering the 2000 Florida election,] an adversary capable of changing one vote per voting machine could have swung 25 electoral votes from Bush to Gore. This would have made the final electoral college totals 246 votes for Bush versus 291 votes for Gore, rather than the actual 271 votes for Bush versus 266 votes for Gore. Thus, an adversary with the ability to manipulate one vote per machine could have changed the outcome of the 2000 U.S. Presidential election.

    In my mind, ACM should be trying a lot harder to get the information in this issue of CACM into the public eye. Not only the article I've excerpted, but all of them.

    cbd.