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UK Voters Want To Vote Online

InternetVoting writes "A recent UK research survey by NTL:Telewest Business found that nearly half of the younger respondents would be more likely to vote online. This year the UK government has authorized 13 local election pilots including Internet voting. ntl:Telewest Business estimates 10 million UK households have broadband and 4,789 local libraries offer public access. In the US political parties are beginning to test the Internet voting waters with the Michigan Democratic Party to offer Internet voting in their 2008 Presidential Caucus. There were some notable differences in generational interest: 'The YouGov poll of almost 2,300 people, carried out on behalf of NTL:Telewest's business unit, found that younger voters were even more positive about the idea of alternatives to the trusty ballot box. 57 per cent of 18-34 year olds liked the idea of evoting, but only a third of the over 55s were as keen.' Given security and privacy concerns in the states, how likely is this to appeal to US voters? "

288 comments

  1. Internet voting is all fun and games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    till Prime Minister goatse man has to salute the queen!

  2. bah by joe+155 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've never had to walk more than 200m to get to vote - maybe if you can't be bothered to make that effort then your vote shouldn't count...

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    *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
    1. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly. Most of the people who responded probably couldn't even name one local candidate, let alone tell you who they're going to vote for on May 3rd. Now we're supposed to make it easier for uninformed people to make an uninformed choice, purely because it's supposed to be "more democratic"? I'm fairly certain democracy requires an informed populace; not someone picking the funniest name on a web page while they wait for the film to download from BitTorrent.

      I won't even bother to mention the potential for abuse or security problems. That stuff is just garuanteed with this sort of scheme.

    2. Re:bah by dvice_null · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So you think that everyone lives 200 m from a voting point? Or do you think that everyone who doesn't live that near should be able to vote online?

    3. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since recent legislation has already set the stage in the UK, all you need to do now is unleash your evoting and your journey to the dark side will be complete.

    4. Re:bah by VJ42 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Everyone already does live near a polling station here in the UK; the system is set up that way to make it convenient to vote. If you can't be bothered to get up and walk a few hundred metres to vote, you're better off staying at home anyway. If you have a disability, or are going to be away, then that's what absentee ballot papers are for.

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      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    5. Re:bah by ookabooka · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...then your vote shouldn't count...

      I'd be very careful making statements like this, even if it is jest. I don't think anyone's vote should be discounted for any reason. Slippery slope indeed...

      --
      If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
    6. Re:bah by maxume · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What if they're under 18?

      This is mildly humorous, but every other class of disenfranchised voter has been until they weren't.

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      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    7. Re:bah by Xtravar · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Actually, quite the opposite. We know the politicians and system so well that we know we'll be throwing our votes away. Speaking from an American point of view, if it were easier to throw our votes away, maybe a third party would have a chance!

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      Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
    8. Re:bah by maxume · · Score: 1

      Who knew teenagers had mod points.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    9. Re:bah by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      How about people living on remote farms? Do they have a polling place within 200 meters?

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      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    10. Re:bah by ookabooka · · Score: 1

      There are some groups that can't vote, like minors, or felons. I think the reason minors aren't allowed to vote is due to the fact that they don't much have the capacity to understand the ramifications of who they vote for. Consequently this makes them prime targets for exploitations by dirty (most) politicians. As for felons I could see it the same way (you'll get parole if you vote for candidate X) and also as a punishment for the crime they have commited. The right to vote being revoked from felons is a complicated issue.

      Perhaps my response was too hasty. I certainly don't think that a reason as minor as this should be good enough to discount a vote. Imagine if having the voting centers at least 200m away was required as a "pruning process" to weed out those that didn't want to vote "badly enough". . .scary stuff IMO.

      --
      If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
    11. Re:bah by jacksonj04 · · Score: 1

      If they won't pass a polling station on the day, they have absentee ballot papers.

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      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
    12. Re:bah by maxume · · Score: 1

      'don't much have the capacity to understand' doesn't magically go away at 18. I kind of figure that people would be angry that parents would be able to influence their children's votes(or even have a bunch of kids just to make them vote), but people are average enough that it wouldn't effect anything. The standard for whether a child can vote or not could probably be the submission of a valid ballot(with some very lax restrictions on how many tries, 20 or something like that(most five year olds would give up after ~2).

      I don't really find the right to vote for felons all that complicated; if they are being let out of prison, there should be some sort of notion of rehabilitation(because they actually don't know right from wrong at least as often(and probably much more often) as they are 'bad'). If rehabilitation is the goal, then there needs to be a carrot, and the best that carrot can be is to make them a whole citizen again(without becoming ridiculous, "Free Lexus after 5 years on the straight and narrow!"). This doesn't mean that you start enforcing fair hiring rules or anything, but they shouldn't get less in their interactions with the government. If the goal is to punish them for being bad, then we should probably just build incinerators and raise the felony bar way up high.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    13. Re:bah by normuser · · Score: 2, Funny

      I've never had to walk more than 200m to get to vote - maybe if you can't be bothered to make that effort then your vote shouldn't count...


      You WALKED 200 miles? wouldnt driving be a litle easier?
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    14. Re:bah by ewanm89 · · Score: 1

      You can always use postal vote! How are you going to stop people from cracking the systm to vote twice if it was online?

    15. Re:bah by VJ42 · · Score: 1

      Do you realise how small the UK is? There's no such thing as a remote farm unless you're living on a small island in the outer Hebrides, and IIRC those people get absentee ballots for constituencies on the mainland. We might not all be literally within 200m from a polling station, but we're all certainly within walking distance (by which I mean it'd take no longer than 5-10 minutes to walk to a polling station at the absolute maximum) of one.

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      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    16. Re:bah by ewanm89 · · Score: 1

      Me under 18 until tommorow. I've already posted postal vote. I wouldn't want online as well even more security flaws. And yes I do have modpoints!

    17. Re:bah by vertinox · · Score: 1

      I've never had to walk more than 200m to get to vote - maybe if you can't be bothered to make that effort then your vote shouldn't count...

      Its not the walk that bothers most people, but rather the 3 hour line in some places due to underfunding of local elections.

      I know some states have laws that say employers must allow time off to vote, but most states don't.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    18. Re:bah by maxume · · Score: 1

      Me speak english good.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    19. Re:bah by VJ42 · · Score: 1

      I think the reason minors aren't allowed to vote is due to the fact that they don't much have the capacity to understand the ramifications of who they vote for. And the point the OP was making is that there are adults to whom this could equally apply to.
      People don't magically gain intelligence at 18; drawing an arbitrary line is just the best of all other possible options, although I'd personally draw it at 16 (here in the UK you can join the army at 16; if you can die for your country, you should be able to choose those would send you to do so).
      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    20. Re:bah by SetupWeasel · · Score: 1

      I think the reason minors aren't allowed to vote is due to the fact that they don't much have the capacity to understand the ramifications of who they vote for.

      Then they shouldn't be forced to pay taxes, or in some cases be fully responsible for their actions in a court of law.

    21. Re:bah by timmyf2371 · · Score: 1

      I don't know about where you live, but in Scotland, there are certainly many farms in remote parts of the country. I know of several farms and houses near me which are over 5-10 minutes drive from the nearest house, let alone the nearest town or polling station.

      --

      Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
    22. Re:bah by cheater512 · · Score: 1

      eVoting would still be far easier.

    23. Re:bah by owlnation · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      It's worth noting who commissioned the survey, and who responded. NTL customers are, generally speaking, Joe and Demi-Jade Sixpack and their brood of shell-suited and bizarrely-named chav offspring (from several fathers, natch).

      I think it's fine letting them vote online. Assuming that the webform just dumps the info. Keeps them quiet and prevents their influence - they'll never be smart enough to figure out their being ignored. Seems win-win to me.

      Seriously though, these are not Alpha demographic respondents - that should be borne in mind before potentially annihilating democracy.

    24. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is about UK voting. The GP is from the UK. Thanks for your comment anyway, even if it doesn't apply.

    25. Re:bah by iminplaya · · Score: 1

      Well then, it's only fair that we put the voting booth on top of Mount Everest. Please note that I do not speak for the mountain climbing lobby, or maybe I do. Just how far is too far to walk exactly? 215m perhaps? Do I hear 220? 225?

      --
      What?
    26. Re:bah by cayenne8 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I would LOVE to be able to vote online...I contract work, so time lost is money lost, and I've only ever once lived close to my polling spot. I'd be much more apt to vote in every election...

      That being said, however, I don't think there could be enough security to lock things down to set up such a system in the US, so, I'd rather not go for it at this time. Testing the waters, though, is a good idea at this time, especially in the caucuses where it isn't directly electing anyone into office.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    27. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must have a real problem with piles of sand.

    28. Re:bah by digitig · · Score: 2, Insightful

      eVoting would still be far easier. Having the government tell you how you voted without you doing anything at all would be easier still. I understand that some countries have that system, but I wouldn't be keen.
      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    29. Re:bah by digitig · · Score: 1

      (here in the UK you can join the army at 16; if you can die for your country, you should be able to choose those would send you to do so). Well, as the use of child soldiers is one of the gripes that Amnesty International has against the UK, a better solution might be to raise the age at which folks can join the armed forces.
      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    30. Re:bah by digitig · · Score: 1

      Never seen queues like that in UK elections. Never had to queue at all in any UK election, and I've only missed one (I was away on business at short notice) in 33 years.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    31. Re:bah by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      You are right, instead, we should let happen what would happen.

      Maybe people who accept internet vote should be punished by living in a country where botnet owners can chose their government.

      Then I'll need to move to Sealand

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    32. Re:bah by normuser · · Score: 0
      The "minors are incompitent" thing always pissed me off from as far back as I can remember and still does even now (im 19). enough ranting.

      here in the UK you can join the army at 16

      In the US its 17. I joined at 17 (Air Force) and its MUCH better then being a civilian. You don't get looked / talked down to for being young and everyone has to earn their rank by their actions/job performance/knowledge and education. I'm not saying its perfect. Just that being an A1C in the air force is preferable to being a "stupid kid" in the civilian world. /end rant /me needs a smoke
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    33. Re:bah by Ironsides · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is this thing called an Absentee Ballot. Perhaps you've heard of it?

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
    34. Re:bah by The_Wilschon · · Score: 1

      So, in other words, the UK does not have it set up so that everyone is within a few hundred meters of a polling station, contrary to what was said a couple of posts back in the thread.

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      SIGSEGV caught, terminating

      wait... not that kind of sig.
    35. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, you know, you could just not give a shit what Amnesty International thinks. You can't please everyone.

    36. Re:bah by iminplaya · · Score: 1

      I guess I'm not the only one. Pretty good company I keep, without even knowing it. Thanks

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      What?
    37. Re:bah by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "There is this thing called an Absentee Ballot. Perhaps you've heard of it?"

      Actually, I'd not really ever known much about them, till Katrina put me on a 2 year (still ongoing) nomadic trip around southern LA.

      I have used it since then...however, the problem is, that I often don't know an election is coming up until it is too late to have one requested to be mailed to you...get it and mail it back before deadline.

      And I tend to watch the news quite a bit...but, still don't know when elections are that far in advance.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    38. Re:bah by The_Wilschon · · Score: 1

      It is worth pointing out that a whole lot of US people pre-US civil rights movement thought that blacks didn't much have the capacity to understand the ramifications of who they voted for. I'm not for minors voting, but this is really a rather dangerous and somewhat silly reason.

      --
      SIGSEGV caught, terminating

      wait... not that kind of sig.
    39. Re:bah by Goaway · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Just because you are too dumb to think up an online voting system that can't be fooled by a botnet, doesn't mean everyone else is.

    40. Re:bah by Ironsides · · Score: 2, Informative

      You must have a screwy district or something. I'm registered in Northern VA. Our elections are every Novemeber, every year. You can check the county website to see what is on the ballot. Request for a ballot is faxing in a form to the county elections office. I've voted more times by absentee ballot than I have in person, due to college. My parents used to do it due to being in the military.

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
    41. Re:bah by owlnation · · Score: 1

      For the most part, the UK population is close to a polling station - usually the local school. In the Islands and the North of Scotland, nowhere is near to anywhere - but we are talking a tiny fraction of the UK population. There are very few people indeed who have any excuse not to visit a polling station in person, or use a postal vote if too infirm, or otherwise unable to vote in person.

      So yes, technically, you are correct, but semantically not so much - not everyone but in fact, almost everyone.

    42. Re:bah by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      It has taken generations to build a democracy, it only takes a few hours from time to time to keep it working.
      If that can help, remember while waiting that you could line up to get some meat instead.
      I agree that employers should allow to take a day off, but I also think that if they don't employees should take this on their free time.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    43. Re:bah by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      Seriously though, these are not Alpha demographic respondents - that should be borne in mind before potentially annihilating democracy.

      I couldn't agree more. I would like to point out that these words are exactly describing what is at stake : annihilation of democracy. I have talked to some of these people thinking that online voting would be confident. I heard things like "If this wasn't secure, we would hear about it.". Usually when I tell them that I am working in IT and consider these things a danger to democracy, they become really receptive. See, they trus "us", the geeky crowd, to warn them about potential danger. Don't keep quiet, speak out loud against electronic or internet voting, our voice is considered authoritative by a lot of people on this issue.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    44. Re:bah by hkmarks · · Score: 1

      And I would walk 200 hundred more just to be the man who walked 400 miles to fall down at your door.

      Or draw an X in a little box. Whatever.

    45. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      snap! :)
      +1 Funny
      I wish I had modpoints left you...

    46. Re:bah by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      First, I wouldn't say "dumb", but I would bet that 90% of voters are not enough knowledgeable about CS to decide if a system is vulnerable to botnet attacks. That alone, would make elections results less authoritative.

      Second, seeing how governments all around the world have been choosing crappy electronic voting machines, I am very doubtful that they will come up with a secure online voting system.

      Third, I would like to point out that banking institutions (who are really paranoid about the security of some datas, just like governments should be about voting) still see their clients being scammed and deceived by simple emails or more elaborate spywares. I believe that if there was a way to prevent it, they would have been the first to discover it.

      Fourth, being administrator of the family computer, I really think that I would be able to mimick any GUI the government could propose and provide this gimmick to the other members of my family, effectively stealing their vote. Would I own an internet cafe, I could do the same to people too poor to have an internet access at home. On a business network, creating a man in the middle attack would be easy (I believe that a lot of online voting supporters want to be able to vote from work)

      But of course the most obvious problem of online voting is that authorities don't feel that they have to be accountable about the results of the vote.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    47. Re:bah by X-rated+Ouroboros · · Score: 1

      everyone has to earn their rank by their actions/job performance/knowledge and education

      You left out "attrition" and "reenlistment", which is how I've seen most people gain rank.

      --
      Simple Machines in Higher Dimensions
    48. Re:bah by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      How about people living on remote farms? Do they have a polling place within 200 meters?

      What proportion of the nation's 18-34 year olds live on remote farms? The needs of the few people who aren't about that distance from a polling station can be considered separately, along with disabled people, and those unable to be present on the day.

    49. Re:bah by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 1

      I don't know about where you live, but in Scotland, there are certainly many farms in remote parts of the country. I know of several farms and houses near me which are over 5-10 minutes drive from the nearest house, let alone the nearest town or polling station.

      I find your idea of "remote" amusing, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

    50. Re:bah by yahooadam · · Score: 1, Interesting

      just have an ID like the postal vote

      the government doesn't want to introduce eVoting because it means they lose control, if we can vote online for who governs us, what stops most important decisions from being made with an eVote

      What about if the entire British populous is able to vote about where we go to war with whoever T-Blair decides is the next big threat

      that's why we wont see the eVote for some time to come

    51. Re:bah by hedwards · · Score: 1

      I believe that it depends upon which state one lives. In Oregon it is 100% vote by mail. Here in Washington, anybody can at any time request that their name be added to the absentee voter list permanently. I think that last election only a small handful of counties were vote in person. And even there one could vote by mail.

      There are however a few states where absentee voting or voting by mail was not allowed at all. I think that most states are moving towards a vote by mail system just because it allows for people to actually think about their votes. I usually take a week or so filling out my ballot. Something I definitely couldn't do at a polling place.

    52. Re:bah by Original+Replica · · Score: 1

      The trick is: How do you know if you have that system or not?

      We, the undersigned Members of Congress, hereby request the Electoral Assistance Division of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs to send election observers to monitor the presidential election in the United States scheduled for November 2, 2004. We are deeply concerned that the right of U.S. citizens to vote in free and fair elections is again in jeopardy. http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx30_johnson/ HouseMembersUnitedNationsElectionMonitor.html

      The US denyed the UN election oversight. So how do I know my vote means anything?

      --
      We are all just people.
    53. Re:bah by Original+Replica · · Score: 1

      Old enough to pay taxes should be old enough to vote.

      --
      We are all just people.
    54. Re:bah by gutnor · · Score: 1

      Funny, in this post everybody is quick to point to absentee ballot.

      Why is that so disturbing to allow citizen to vote on internet instead of by mail? We spent the last 10 years explaining the internet revolution to people and that they should buy online - meet friends online - play online - find love online - work online - ...
      But when they ask to vote online, however they are treated like a sort of ugly lazy bastard not taking voting seriously ... go figure.

    55. Re:bah by Millenniumman · · Score: 1

      Honestly, I can't see the problem with not counting votes that people are too lazy/apathetic to cast in the first place. If they really don't care, then they don't need to make decisions for those that do.

      Are we going to start enforcing free speech next? Requiring people to go to protests?

      --
      Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
    56. Re:bah by Ironsides · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Buying something online is not supposed to be anonymous and if something goes wrong it's easy to notice and fix.

      What we're concerned with is, among other ways, someone hacking into the servers and fixing the results. Then there is DDosing the servers and other things. I'm not yet willing to trust voting computers being hooked up to the internet just yet. Dedicated networks, yes. General internet, no.

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
    57. Re:bah by Ironsides · · Score: 1

      There are however a few states where absentee voting or voting by mail was not allowed at all.

      That's not correct. I know every state has something set up for absentee voting. Otherwise the military would never be able to vote in those states.

      I think that most states are moving towards a vote by mail system just because it allows for people to actually think about their votes. I usually take a week or so filling out my ballot. Something I definitely couldn't do at a polling place.

      Take a look at the ballot early. I know who I'm going to vote for before I go in or before I get my ballot even. I can see every item that gets voted upon and each person running from the county website, Local, State and Federal. I look everyone up ahead of time.

      --
      Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
    58. Re:bah by Millenniumman · · Score: 1

      Its not the walk that bothers most people, but rather the 3 hour line in some places due to underfunding of local elections. Then the problem is underfunding. Not the lack of an online voting system.

      I know some states have laws that say employers must allow time off to vote, but most states don't Then they can vote in their free time.

      If someone can't take an hour out of one day out of two years to vote, they don't care.
      --
      Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
    59. Re:bah by rs79 · · Score: 1

      "eVoting would still be far easier."

      And won't the Brits be surprised to find out George Bush won.

      --
      Need Mercedes parts ?
    60. Re:bah by zmollusc · · Score: 1

      Hey, you don't have to be lazy or apathetic to fail to vote. You may just be a realist who has seen the performance of previous election winners.

      --
      They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
    61. Re:bah by CmdrGravy · · Score: 1

      Well maybe, but I expect these people occasionally leave their farms, perhaps to take the kids to school, do some shopping, sell some sheep or whatever and it's really not so hard to organise yourself so you do those jobs on polling day and vote at the same time.

      Another point is how many of those remote farms have access to the internet, maybe they have dial up but I bet a fair proportion of them don't have broadband yet.

    62. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What lines? Remember this is done by people filling out a simple form with pencil and paper, not using some US style vote-rigging machine that breaks down and/or uses a misaligned touchscreen. It is far quicker to vote in England than it is to get a pint of beer in a pub (especially a Guinness). Yet still we get lower turnouts than France (higher than USA though). Australia and New Zealand have much higher turnouts though, since voting is compulsory.

    63. Re:bah by CmdrGravy · · Score: 1

      I have voted in every election in the last 15 years in the UK and have never had to queue for more than 30 seconds at the polling booth. This is not an issue in the UK.

    64. Re:bah by CmdrGravy · · Score: 1

      I entirely agree, it's like the whole ID card affair. A lot of people seem to quite like the idea until they learn about how it will exactly ( not ) work.

      Also I wonder how the survey was phrased

      Would you

      A) Like to get off your couch in the middle of Jeremy Kyle and spend 40minutes trudging to the polling station to cast your vote even though you have no idea who any of the candidates are or what they stand for.

      B) Vote on the Internet using fun and easy to use interactive software which you will be given to you for free. Vote during Jeremey Kyle and without leaving your sofa !

      Like many people I'm sure a lot of the people who choose A don't vote anyway at the moment and I for one would like to keep it that way, unless they are all die hard tories and can help get rid of the awful, hypocritical holier than everyone Labour morons.

    65. Re:bah by VJ42 · · Score: 1

      People are leagally responsible for just about everything else at 16, and are no longer considered minors by law. The only other things that they can't do are buy alcohol, age 18 for that, drive, age 17, or stand for Parliment, age 21.
      Taking these facts into consideration, along with the fact that 16 is the school leaving age*, I think it would be simpler to bring all age limits down to 16 than to raise them all. That way could they even be considered children at all? Amnesty's "problem" would also be solved.

      *If you can leave school and enter the workplace, the old, and very important, "no taxation without representation" argument also comes into play.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    66. Re:bah by digitig · · Score: 1

      Amnesty's "problem" would also be solved. It isn't Amnesty's problem, it's based on a UN definition of "child soldier". Changing the UK voting age wouldn't change the UN's position (http://www.unicef.org/protection/childsoldiers.pd f.
      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    67. Re:bah by Macthorpe · · Score: 1

      Okay, here's a concrete example for you.

      Residents living at Coleton Fishacre (TQ6 0EQ) in South Devon have to walk over 2 miles to their nearest polling station at Hillhead Camp (TQ5 0HH). Try typing in "TQ6 0EQ to TQ5 0HH" into Google Maps for a map of that. It actually takes longer than 5 minutes to drive that distance, let alone walk it.

      How about now you admit that you were wrong?

      --
      "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    68. Re:bah by VJ42 · · Score: 1

      Then my issue is with the definition of child soldier; if an indivdual was able to vote, pay taxes, drive, drink, etc. at 16 intead of 18 why are they any more of a child soldier if they join the army?
      I suppose my question is more along the lines of "What makes somone a child"? It's certainly not age, or at least not age alone; I've met intelligent and mature 16 year olds; and dumb, immature adults are easy to find. Unfortunately, the UN doesn't seem to make that distinction. The British Army, however, does.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    69. Re:bah by Macthorpe · · Score: 1
      Nobody is going to deny that as an option - however the original comment was:

      If you can't be bothered to get up and walk a few hundred metres to vote, you're better off staying at home Some of us don't have that option.

      --
      "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
    70. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never had to walk more than 200m to get to vote - maybe if you can't be bothered to make that effort then your vote shouldn't count...


      Don't worry. It won't be.
    71. Re:bah by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 1

      Most of the people who responded probably couldn't even name one local candidate, let alone tell you who they're going to vote for on May 3rd.
      Is that the date for the final of Technicolour Castaway Big Brother? Because that's probably what the survey respondents thought it was about.
      --
      It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
    72. Re:bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All the kids I know under 18 are pretty much idiots when it comes to politics - they would much rather play computer games or listen to Britney Spears than inform themselves about what is going on in the real world. I know that sounds like an unfair generalization (and yes, I know a very, very small minority of teenagers do care enough to find out what goes on in the world) but, at least in my experience, the vast majority couldn't care less. And those adults you mention that are idiots now were FAR MORE idiotic when they were younger and thank God THEY never got to vote.

      I'd rather keep the voting age at 18.

  3. How likely? by zappepcs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Very likely if they can find a company (NOT Diebold) who can manage to make it a secure process. I certainly appreciate all the things that are government related that I can do online now. Voting would be useful. Those that don't want to, or cannot vote online can continue to do so at voting stations. The combination should cover everyone.... IF they can make it secure and keep the graft out of the process.

    1. Re:How likely? by cs02rm0 · · Score: 1

      They can't make it secure though. Never have, never will. And politicians like holes in systems they can exploit to win elections, I'd rather not add more opportunities for them to take.

      I keep hearing about how everyone in the UK wants online voting - no one ever asked me and I fear these stories will influence the politically and technically ignorant masses who lack such healthy cynicism!

    2. Re:How likely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Click here to vote for "Candidate X!!!" (which actually votes for Candidate Y) would be fun.

    3. Re:How likely? by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

      I posted this a week ago, and it may very well be nothing, but the folks at Alternet were raising concerns about the reporting of vote tallies in Ohio during the 04 election.

      http://www.alternet.org/story/50941/

      More specifically, they were concerned that the Ohio Secretary of State was hosting, tallying, and reporting election results with hardware / software architectures developed by companies with partisan connections.

      --
      "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
    4. Re:How likely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "if they can find a company (NOT Diebold) who can manage to make it a secure process"

      No government run, large scale computer system has ever worked properly here. The UK civil service simply cannot build a working computer system of any kind either on it's own or by out-sourcing ("get the yellow pages").

      It'll never happen - common sense says the cross-on-a-piece-of-paper system works fine, and for such a critical operation (who knows what might happen differently if we were run by tories instead of Tony. Serious question.) don't fix what ain't broke. We'll leave that nonsense to some of the sillier countries.

    5. Re:How likely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Voting in the UK is anonymous i.e. they know you voted but not who you voted for. You cannot make online voting both secure and anonymous.

      Not that voting is secure in so far as they don't check you are who you say you are, but on the other hand the people at the polling stations will probably notice if someone tries to vote multiple times.

      I don't want online voting because I doubt it will be done securely leaving it open to abuse and election fraud, this doubt comes from a general lack of faith in government projects to do anything right. If they do manage to do it securely anyway, I believe that could only be done by removing the anonymity, which is fine as people would initially have a choice of how to vote. However, it would only be a short step away from making voting completely electronic by putting computers in the polling stations thus removing the choice on how to vote and losing anonymity in the process.

      Maybe I'm just being paranoid here, but I certainly wouldn't put it past our current government to try something like this.

    6. Re:How likely? by zappepcs · · Score: 1

      who said the paper ballot system isn't broken? In the U.S. there are plenty of dead people that vote every year. There are plenty of counting issues, and more to the point, polling station shenanigans to prohibit or inhibit whole groups of people from being able to vote easily. This has been the way since very early on in U.S. history, if not before that.

    7. Re:How likely? by ewanm89 · · Score: 1

      Patch the holes you americans have first then add online voting! I certainly do not want online voting in the UK.

    8. Re:How likely? by EsbenMoseHansen · · Score: 1

      Voting in the UK is anonymous i.e. they know you voted but not who you voted for. You cannot make online voting both secure and anonymous.

      That is quite possible. Silly but working way: Let someone send everyone a (private) key, and publish the public key. Then use that for certification by someone else. As long as those 2 are seperate, no problem. Or the login could be protected by a unique password, but when the vote cast is not registered under this key. And so on. This is no more unsecure than today, really.. someone could mark all the voting forms with invisible ink and keep track, for all you know. Public audits of the code, the servers and so on could keep the level of trust high. Really, this is not the hard problem.

      Not that voting is secure in so far as they don't check you are who you say you are, but on the other hand the people at the polling stations will probably notice if someone tries to vote multiple times.

      In this country, you have to turn in a slip you got mailed to you, and fit the name. You might be asked to show id, too.

      I don't want online voting because I doubt it will be done securely leaving it open to abuse and election fraud, this doubt comes from a general lack of faith in government projects to do anything right. If they do manage to do it securely anyway, I believe that could only be done by removing the anonymity, which is fine as people would initially have a choice of how to vote. However, it would only be a short step away from making voting completely electronic by putting computers in the polling stations thus removing the choice on how to vote and losing anonymity in the process.

      Maybe I'm just being paranoid here, but I certainly wouldn't put it past our current government to try something like this.

      Not paranoid enough I say. The problem is: How do you stop people from a) voting for the spouse? b) force people to vote while watching what they vote for, even telling them what to vote? Those are the hard problems. The ones you describe are easy-peasy, just a matter of will, money and reviews.

      --
      Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
    9. Re:How likely? by malsdavis · · Score: 1

      Actually voting can be made secure, the only thing that is impossible is for it to be anonymous and secure. However since voting in the UK isn't actually anonymous anyway (ballot papers have a personally identifiable reference number to prevent fraud), this point is mute.

    10. Re:How likely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The combination should cover everyone.... IF they can make it secure and keep the graft out of the process.

      Pfffftt!! There goes another keyboard. *...keep the graft out of the process*...BWHAHAHA..Oh, that's killer.

    11. Re:How likely? by jimicus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      who said the paper ballot system isn't broken? In the U.S. there are plenty of dead people that vote every year. There are plenty of counting issues, and more to the point, polling station shenanigans to prohibit or inhibit whole groups of people from being able to vote easily. This has been the way since very early on in U.S. history, if not before that.

      It's not broken, but there are degrees of brokenness.

      The big advantage with paper ballots is that it's very hard to make a substantial change to the outcome without it being pretty damn obvious to even the most lacksidaisical of officials. The same is simply not true of the "magic black box" which the computerised voting systems in common use are.

    12. Re:How likely? by digitig · · Score: 1

      How will they make it secure? In particular, how will they make sure that a dominating head of household doesn't cast all the household votes? The present system isn't great at that, but online voting will make it all but impossible.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    13. Re:How likely? by jimicus · · Score: 1

      This is no more unsecure than today, really.. someone could mark all the voting forms with invisible ink and keep track, for all you know.

      True, but it's a lot quicker to have the computer fill out the database of "who voted for whom". As soon as you introduce databases to the equation, suddenly a lot of things which simply weren't practical before become so - and then it's only a matter of time before someone comes up with an abuse of the process.

      We have some fairly strict data protection laws which in theory apply to almost everyone (with a few exceptions, most notably if the data is demanded for the purposes of solving a crime). In practise, the government seems to be rubbing their hands in glee at every possible use of data which would technically be illegal but they know full well they're unlikely to be taken to task on it.

    14. Re:How likely? by digitig · · Score: 1

      Voting in the UK is anonymous i.e. they know you voted but not who you voted for.

      Not completely true. In the UK your voting slip is marked with a unique identifier, and when the officer hands you the slip to vote that identifier is recorded against your name. If the government wants to know how a particular individual voted, looking for their voting slip would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But if the government wanted to know who voted for a particular candidate -- especially if it's a candidate who only gets a small vote -- then all the information is there on record.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    15. Re:How likely? by Talchas · · Score: 1

      It's almost impossible to impossible to prevent fraud in off the internet voting too. The disadvantage in any computerized voting is that it makes fraud easier to conduct on a large scale if it is possible to commit at all.

      --
      As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century,free flow of information is the only safeguard against...
    16. Re:How likely? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this point is mute.


      Actually it is moot
    17. Re:How likely? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      Sorry, I don't want to accept any leader or decision resulting from an election where some people have voted through internet.

      The day this happens in my country, I really believe it will have stopped to be a democracy. Democracy is not only about votes. It is also about trust. It is based on the idea that if the leader elected is not the one you like, you can not challenge its legitimacy because more people prefer him. But if there begins to be any doubt about the legitimacy of a leader in an election, civil war becomes very close. Am I paranoiac ? Check the history of all democratic African states who sank in chaos because of election frauds.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    18. Re:How likely? by asuffield · · Score: 1

      You cannot make online voting both secure and anonymous.


      Actually you can, but there are no known methods which do not require intelligent voters who can follow non-trivial instructions. If you can assume that all your voters have passed math at the GCSE level or higher, and can follow the operating instructions for a VCR, it's easy.

      Naturally, the voters are too stupid for this.
    19. Re:How likely? by afaik_ianal · · Score: 1

      Yet strangely, I don't see serious calls to stop postal voting, which is neither anonymous nor secure, but makes voting much more accessible.

    20. Re:How likely? by EsbenMoseHansen · · Score: 1

      Both my proposals included never collecting this data. So we are talking about someone in the government or elsewhere managing to collect this data anyway. Well, it could be done in the paper form, and wouldn't even be that hard to do --- mark the voting forms, saving them and use fingerprints are 2 ways that comes to mind. With the proper review setup, the electronic way could be made impossible to break anonymity.

      But as I said, that part is the easy part.

      --
      Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
  4. Scariest shit i have heard in ages by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Should be like you driving test. If you want it , turn up and fucking do it. The world is not there for your wishful may or may not convenience.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
    1. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by jez9999 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've never understood all this 'encouraging people to vote' bullshit. The answer to me seems simple. Make it fucking MANDATORY, and put a 'none of the above box' on the ballot. Problem solved. I would be just fine with the few hundred lazy morons who couldn't be bothered to vote being in jail. Australia shows that it's quite feasible.

    2. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by dan+dan+the+dna+man · · Score: 1

      Amen to that.

      I don't think you need to jail them. A fine should do, deducted from whatever your PAYE equivalent is. Or removed directly from your benefits.

      I used to not vote due to apathy. A lot of people had a go at me with the 'if you don't vote you can't complain' line. I still have no truck with that, I will complain when I like ;)

      I vote now, even though my vote is always against the mainstream, even though my vote means nothing and does nothing to change my local or national democracy. But I vote to make sure that when the returns come in, there's another person registered and voted to show they are desperately unhappy with how things are run.

      --
      I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
    3. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by slysithesuperspy · · Score: 1

      Wow, authoritarian democracy, great.

    4. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by vertinox · · Score: 1

      The world is not there for your wishful may or may not convenience.

      But I thought that was the point of politics to provide to the citzens in the first place. ;)

      Should be like you driving test. If you want it , turn up and fucking do it.

      I hate to break it to you, but I showed up to a test once about 15 years ago and now I just renew my license online (my state supports online registration)

      All I have to do is show up at a valid photo booth with the information the State DOT mails me and they take a photo of me at an approved photo location. (Your state may differ)

      Also... You forget that some people are handicapped, don't own a car, or generally unavailable (over seas) would benefit from this. (Some states do provide absentee ballots for the military or handicapped. Not all of them do this the same though)

      Lastly, this would also alleviate local voting issues when there aren't enough polls around to allow people to vote in a timely manner. Remember in 2004 when people had 3-9 hour waits in places where the booths were understaffed and under equipped.

      Personally, I think they should making voting a national holiday and encourages business to close much like Christmas or New Year's and let people know that this is something that should be celebrated and encouraged in all forms.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    5. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "Personally, I think they should making voting a national holiday and encourages business to close much like Christmas or New Year's and let people know that this is something that should be celebrated and encouraged in all forms."

      While that is a very nice thought, it isn't practical. There are WAY too many elections throught the year...at least in all the states in the US. You have local elections, state elections, national elections...and they don't always happen at the same time. That would mean just way too many holidays.

      While we in the US do NOT take enough vacation time, and this might actually improve the health of the populus, I doubt the business lobby would go for it....

      Not to mention, not everyone is a paid employee somewhere, I contract work, no work, no billing for time, no money.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    6. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by jimicus · · Score: 1

      Lastly, this would also alleviate local voting issues when there aren't enough polls around to allow people to vote in a timely manner. Remember in 2004 when people had 3-9 hour waits in places where the booths were understaffed and under equipped.

      Did you even read the headline? This is the UK.

      We elect only a handful of officials - nothing like the number of people in the US whose position is elected. Our system is therefore a lot simpler and less prone to breakage - we really don't need anything complicated. Draw a cross in the box next to the person you want to vote for.

      Under equipped? The equipment is "a box of pencils, a box of ballot sheets, a few polling booths and a ballot box". Not exactly complicated. And polling stations are generally open from about 7:30 am to about 8 or 10pm.

    7. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by digitig · · Score: 1

      I've never understood all this 'encouraging people to vote' bullshit. The answer to me seems simple. Make it fucking MANDATORY, and put a 'none of the above box' on the ballot. Problem solved. Yeah, take away yet another of our civil liberties, great idea. Any party that did that would never ever get my vote again.
      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    8. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by digitig · · Score: 1

      Personally, I think they should making voting a national holiday and encourages business to close much like Christmas or New Year's and let people know that this is something that should be celebrated and encouraged in all forms. Hmm, beach or polling station ... beach or polling station ... decisions decisions!
      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    9. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      Fine by me, as long as you HAD to vote. :-)

    10. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by Eternauta3k · · Score: 1

      Yeah, take away yet another of our civil liberties, great idea
      How is not voting a civil liberty?
      --
      Yeah. Would you choose a neurosurgeon who pokes around people's brains in his spare time? I wouldn't.
    11. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by TheGreatHegemon · · Score: 1

      Too lazy to vote? Here, let's give you electronic voting.
      What's next? Too lazy to choose who to vote for? Let me choose that for you too.

    12. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Australia, the fine is around $40, but that's enough of an incentive for people to vote.

    13. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by digitig · · Score: 1

      At present I have a choice whether to vote or not.

      Mandatory voting: disadvantages -- I lose that choice, government has more say in what I do with my own life; advantages -- nil.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    14. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by mike2R · · Score: 1

      Quite agree, if it's really that important then make in mandatory. These half arsed measures to try and increase turnout are stupid and risky - people should vote in private, not somewhere where they can be cooerced. Allow postal voting for people with genuine difficulties getting to the polling station but this should be the exception, not something that politicians push because they think (correctly) that low turn out reflects badly on them.

      I'm not massively in favour of mandatory voting, but it's a lot better than these idiotic alternatives.

      --
      This sig all sigs devours
    15. Re:Scariest shit i have heard in ages by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 1

      There are people who choose not to vote or participate in the political system for religious reasons. Have fun with that little nugget.

  5. If it were more open... by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think e-voting can work. As long as the votes are kept totally public then I see it as being viable. It's the only way you can be sure everyone's vote was really counted how it should've been. The moment you start hiding votes and secreting them away you introduce the possibility for corruption from the organizers.

    So, my question is: what's wrong with everyone knowing what everyone else voted? Does it create bias in the workplace? Do Liberal bosses see their Conservative employees votes and thus not give them raises, or worse, in an at-will state such as mine, just fire them outright?

    Is this the kind of person you want to be your boss anyway? Wouldn't the system naturally cleanse itself from people like that? Sure, at first it'd be a bumpy road and a lot of chaos would ensue, but it seems to be the final state of things would be a lot smoother than the state of not even knowing if your vote was counted right, or if the people counting the votes stacked them somehow. It just seems like hiding votes has always been a crutch.

    But please, correct me if I'm wrong...

    TLF

    --
    I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
    1. Re:If it were more open... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I apoligize, but you are wrong.

      The core justification for 'hiding' or having a 'secret' ballot cast, is not to prevent accurate tallying, but to prevent coercion in voting; that is, someone threatening or paying you to vote a certain way, this has been prevented by having a secret ballot. This seems to me to be a major hurdle in e-voting and open elections, along with the obvious potential for fraud and manipulation.

    2. Re:If it were more open... by DarkEntity · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The reason you don't want everyone else to know how other people voted is that knowing for sure how someone voted can lead to intimidation, bribery, and the like. Having an open ballot discourages sincere voting by subjecting people to even more peer pressure. As cliché as it might seem, peer pressure really would have a large effect in a thing such as this. Past peer pressure, there is always intimidation. Vote the wrong way and you'll pay. Ya dig?

    3. Re:If it were more open... by Dogtanian · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's the only way you can be sure everyone's vote was really counted how it should've been. The moment you start hiding votes and secreting them away you introduce the possibility for corruption from the organizers. Some of what I studied in my computer science degree course was just how people could find out their vote had been counted correctly; can't remember how it was done, but it certainly wasn't "just show everyone's votes".

      So, my question is: what's wrong with everyone knowing what everyone else voted? It creates the potential for intimidation on the basis of voting, and the ability to skew the vote that way. Jesus, in some countries simply *voting* is enough to make you the target of violence. (Please don't use that as justification for saying "well, it won't make any difference if they know who you voted for then").

      Does it create bias in the workplace? Do Liberal bosses see their Conservative employees votes and thus not give them raises, or worse, in an at-will state such as mine, just fire them outright? Who knows; it certainly creates the potential for intimidation and manipulation of the vote.

      Is this the kind of person you want to be your boss anyway? There's something about your perspective on this reminiscent of Marge Simpson (and similar mothers everywhere) saying "Well, anyone who beats you up for wearing a shirt isn't your friend."

      Wouldn't the system naturally cleanse itself from people like that? Possibly. Or it might cleanse the troublemakers.

      Sure, at first it'd be a bumpy road and a lot of chaos would ensue, but it seems to be the final state of things would be a lot smoother than the state of not even knowing if your vote was counted right, You'd be absolutely sure if your vote had been counted, even if you were unwilling to vote for the person you actually wanted to vote for because you'd been threatened with X, Y and Z.

      or if the people counting the votes stacked them somehow. It just seems like hiding votes has always been a crutch. And the people who didn't like you and want to kill you on the basis of your vote aren't your friends anyway! Seriously, I think you're living in some fantasy libertarian lala land.
      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    4. Re:If it were more open... by dvice_null · · Score: 1

      > knowing for sure how someone voted can lead to intimidation, bribery, and the like.

      Do you anyone who has a digital camera in his or hers mobile phone? I don't see how hard it could be to bribe someone and ask him/her to take a photo as a proof.

    5. Re:If it were more open... by cdrguru · · Score: 1

      How do you deal with a large, well-funded organization that says simply "Send us your vote receipt and if you voted for our candidate, we'll send you $10" Or $20. Or $50. The amount isn't really relevent.

      How many people will vote "their principals" rather than with their wallet?

      It would be almost impossible to prevent this sort of thing once you make voting verifiable in any way after voting. Sure, there might have to be a bit more subtlty with the offer, but it would be impossible to stop completely. This means that anyone with enough money could simply buy the required votes. Easily.

      Of course, most people on the Left believe this is already commonplace with Republicans, so maybe they don't see it as anything new.

    6. Re:If it were more open... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      So, my question is: what's wrong with everyone knowing what everyone else voted? Does it create bias in the workplace? Do Liberal bosses see their Conservative employees votes and thus not give them raises, or worse, in an at-will state such as mine, just fire them outright?

      Is this the kind of person you want to be your boss anyway? Wouldn't the system naturally cleanse itself from people like that? Sure, at first it'd be a bumpy road and a lot of chaos would ensue, but it seems to be the final state of things would be a lot smoother than the state of not even knowing if your vote was counted right, or if the people counting the votes stacked them somehow. It just seems like hiding votes has always been a crutch.

      But please, correct me if I'm wrong...


      You're wrong, so I'm correcting you. I think you put aside the question of intimidation far too easily. But on top of that, there can also be carrots as well as sticks. How would you like it if your representative was elected because everyone who voted for him got $10? Oh, they can't prove anything; nobody figured out where the money came from. But it sure was a nice bonus for the people who voted the right way.

      Chris Mattern
    7. Re:If it were more open... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not keeping the votes secret opens the door to vote-buying. Even though blatant vote-buying(money or other benefits in exchange for votes) may seem very unlikely in wealthy countries, scenarios such as abusive spouses or parents punishing their family for voting "wrongly" are not at all far-fetched.

      Even without abuse proper, having votes public would encourage many people to vote in accordance with the beliefs of their family or their community in order to please them, rather than with their own beliefs.

      People who vote for unpopular "extreme" parties may be harassed in their local community - i.e. right wing groups harassing extreme-left voters, left wing groups harassing extreme-right voters, etc. Similarly, people who vote for third-parties in systems such as the American one(where votes for, say, the Green Party, might influence the race in a direction other than that intended by the voter) might be targeted.

      Furthermore, as you note, employers could screen potential or current employees by voting record. (This is not a hypothetical situation; remember e.g. McCarthyism.) Being denied work is a pretty fundamental form of persecution; if your opinion is so abhorrent to the majority that your chances of finding a job are significantly reduced, your quality of life is being decreased solely because of your political affiliations. (Remember that, in your scenario, you have no choice in the matter of whether or not you disclose this opinion publicly, assuming that you want to do your "civic duty" by voting.) Most people would say that this is unacceptable in a democracy.

      This method also makes democratic elections completely useless as a weapon against dictatorship. If you imagine a country in a (literal) state of near-dictatorship where candidates were able and willing to use violence to coerce voters, a voting method such as this would obviously be completely useless for the same reasons: voting "wrongly" could have negative repercussions for any voter, so everyone would either vote "correctly" or just stay at home.

      In the event of a democratic country turning into a dictatorship, having actual lists of the political sympathies of the entire voting population available might quickly turn very nasty indeed.

      I can't really see any reason why such a system would necessarily work itself out and end up in a desirable final state.

    8. Re:If it were more open... by jejones · · Score: 1

      You are wrong. The system won't "cleanse itself." If others can determine how you voted, then you won't vote your true preference, at least not in some cases. It lends itself to abuse... as does voting online, because someone, e.g. an abusive spouse, could look over your shoulder.

      Or how about this: the local union holds an "online voting party" and invites all its members. Of course, they'll be able to see how you vote, and if you decline the invitation, well, you must be trying to hide something, right?

    9. Re:If it were more open... by Hennell · · Score: 1

      Other then the reason someone mentioned above, of 'buying votes' there is also case for bias. I'm not sure how much it would effect general workplaces, the rate of apathy in this country means I don't think that many people would care, but certain career paths, and voters for certain strong view parties might have problems.
      I don't recall all the details, but there was a case a while back of parents complaining about a teacher because he was fund-raising for the BNP. Similarly police officers would face scrutiny, and there would be loads of problems if they were found to have a strong BNP side. Whist open voting does allow for less chance to fake voting, it also takes away a key part of democracy; that of allowing to vote for who you want with no repercussions.
      ---
      This signiture is remarkably specious
      ---

    10. Re:If it were more open... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It lends itself to abuse... as does voting online, because someone, e.g. an abusive spouse, could look over your shoulder.

      Do you want to tell us something, Jonesy? It's ok. You're safe here.

    11. Re:If it were more open... by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      It's the only way you can be sure everyone's vote was really counted how it should've been. That's not true. There are plenty of ways to cryptographically verify a vote without exposing it publically using techniques like hashing and digital signatures. IF you look through prior Slashdot discussions there are a number of novel paper-based approaches as well.
    12. Re:If it were more open... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      Do you anyone who has a digital camera in his or hers mobile phone? I don't see how hard it could be to bribe someone and ask him/her to take a photo as a proof.


      Mark the ballot for who the other party asked you to vote for, take the picture, then tell the poll worker you spoiled the ballot by accident. Poll worker takes the "spoiled" ballot and destroys it, gives you a fresh one. You fill out that one for who you want. Even easier for electronic voting, where the final confirmation screen says "You voted" and not "You voted for..." for this very reason.

      Chris Mattern
    13. Re:If it were more open... by makomk · · Score: 1

      You're wrong. There's enough problems of that sort with postal voting already (see particularly the claim about "Asian voting networks").

    14. Re:If it were more open... by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 1

      That's not true. There are plenty of ways for the people controlling the process to cryptographically verify a vote without exposing it publically using techniques like hashing and digital signatures. IF you look through prior Slashdot discussions there are a number of novel paper-based approaches as well.


      Fixed.

      Point is, when I vote, I sometimes feel like there's no way for me to know if it really counted. When you see what everyone voted for, and NONE of those people are up in arms because their vote was not what they entered, then you aboslutely know for a fact that the process is legit. Because you can count them yourself, independently, and so can everybody else. Everyone will arrive at the same numbers and there will be zero doubt as to the winner.

      TLF
      --
      I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
    15. Re:If it were more open... by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 1

      And the people who didn't like you and want to kill you on the basis of your vote aren't your friends anyway! Seriously, I think you're living in some fantasy libertarian lala land.

      You may be right. Maybe I'm naive to think people would be able to work together despite knowing who each other voted for. I guess I'm delusional to think the human race can get along with each other and cooperate despite the fact that some of them may have voted for a different politician. I thought we were beyond that. I personally respect the opinions of my fellow citizens and I respect their right to vote for whoever they choose. I would hope they extend me the same respect. Of course, greed will always be a factor. Electing one politician could very easily make or break certain types of organizations. It would definitely raise the degree of partisanship in many companies. And of course that would drive things like intimidation. But I still think eventually it would smooth out and the lines would be drawn more clearly. Most importantly I think the people who endorsed tolerance and understanding and remained non-partisan would be the most successful. I think it would be the party hard-liners that would get pushed to the periphery, leaving the rest of (the majority) us sensible folk to actually accomplish something.

      TLF
      --
      I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
    16. Re:If it were more open... by umbra_dweller · · Score: 1

      Just to add something different to what everybody else said - what about people working in government? Not just the people who are actually on capitol hill, but everyone from federal interns to lawyers to a local mayor's secretary - basically any professional person who has any regular contact with the government at any level might suddenly have a serious career problem if they voted for the "wrong" party.

    17. Re:If it were more open... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If votes were public, I could not vote for the party I prefer and expect to keep my career. It's as simple as that. I've even ticked the "anonymous" button here because I don't want my current or future employer to chance across it and wonder enough to dig more.

    18. Re:If it were more open... by meringuoid · · Score: 1
      So, my question is: what's wrong with everyone knowing what everyone else voted? Does it create bias in the workplace? Do Liberal bosses see their Conservative employees votes and thus not give them raises, or worse, in an at-will state such as mine, just fire them outright?

      Perhaps. It's happened before, and it happens all over the world in countries with less strongly established democratic principles. Look up the phrase 'rotten borough', a constituency where the landlord corruptly controls both the electorate and the MP. British democracy was once thoroughly corrupted by vote-buying and coercion as a result of the lack of a secret ballot. Though there is still much wrong - don't get me started on the bloody first-past-the-post system - at least all votes are free of outside influence as a result of their total secrecy. 'Vote for me or I'll fire you / evict you / break your legs' doesn't work if the voter can simply lie about what he did in the polling booth.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    19. Re:If it were more open... by digitig · · Score: 1

      I was once involved in a proposal for validation of an electronic voting system in a country where in living memory the offer was likely to have been "vote for our candidate and we won't put a bullet through your kid's head". We didn't win the bid, but I do recall that voter secrecy was pretty high on the agenda.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    20. Re:If it were more open... by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      Inside a family this can bring some problems. Husband forcing wife to vote the same "You won't vote for this feminist bitch would you ?", major children taking pressure from their parents. "You want to live in a communist state ? Let's see how you manage to pay studies without my support then". Peer pressure can be important also. I don't count how many parties with friends have gone ugly since two persons began to talk politics. And also yeah, I would like to work in a place where the pay is high, job interesting and the boss is clueless.

      I also wouldn't like the cops to be able to know I voted for the party that wanted to limit their powers.
      I don't want my landlord knowing that I vote for people making apartment prices low.
      I don't want my doctor to know that as long as I have been alive, I have always voted for people cutting their funds.

      Of course there are thousands of examples...

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    21. Re:If it were more open... by Dogtanian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I guess I'm delusional to think the human race can get along with each other and cooperate despite the fact that some of them may have voted for a different politician. I thought we were beyond that. We're not. Even if the majority of people can get along despite their differences, there will always be a minority who feel differently.

      I personally respect the opinions of my fellow citizens I personally respect the right of my fellow citizens to hold these opinions, but that doesn't mean to say I have to agree with them.

      and I respect their right to vote for whoever they choose. (Repeat previous statement)

      I would hope they extend me the same respect. So would I, but that's not something I'd be willing to take on trust if my job and/or life depended on it.

      Of course, greed will always be a factor. Electing one politician could very easily make or break certain types of organizations. It would definitely raise the degree of partisanship in many companies. And of course that would drive things like intimidation. You assume that losing your job is the worst thing that could happen. As I said above, in some countries, you could lose your life; particularly if the government is hostile. And I don't like the idea of my voting record being open; things could change in the future.

      But I still think eventually it would smooth out and the lines would be drawn more clearly. Unfortunately, they may be drawn in favour of those in power, or those who have greatest power in your local (voting) area, not necessarily in favour of democracy. Again, please excuse me if I don't take this one on trust.

      Most importantly I think the people who endorsed tolerance and understanding and remained non-partisan would be the most successful. Why?

      I think it would be the party hard-liners that would get pushed to the periphery, leaving the rest of (the majority) us sensible folk to actually accomplish something. No offence, but I think you're being overly idealistic. And yes, idealism is okay if it gives you the idea of the way you'd like things to be, but it's a lousy foundation to build a voting system, society, or any "real life" structure upon. That's why communism turns to dictatorship so easily; the idea is built on a fundamentally idealistic view of human nature and will inevitably fall, or be corrupted at the highest level to ensure its continued existence, destroying its stated purpose in the process.

      It's a cliche, but you know the expression about "one bad apple". Perhaps you think I have a somewhat cynical and downbeat view of humanity; well, I probably do, but that's not the problem here. Put simply, there only need to be a relatively small percentage of corrupt, selfish people (basically those with psychopathic or simply selfish behaviour) to subvert and exploit any system which relies on an overly idealistic view of humanity. The "bad apples".

      Until the human race fundamentally changes, these people will always be with us, and I certainly don't intend letting them destroy things.
      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    22. Re:If it were more open... by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      ...for the people controlling the process... You are still incorrect. Let me pick one of the methods off the top of my head. I may not remember the mechanics correctly.

      Everyone is given a random number when they vote. Now, start with a blank ballot. You fill-in the ballot. The ballot is then cryptographically hashed along with the random number you were given to produce a ballot hash. That result is stored on the voting computers. You go home, and go to a web site. You enter in your random number. That random number is then used to find your ballot hash, without identifying you. You enter in your vote again, then the hash is recalculated. If the hashes match, then your vote has been securely stored without being tampered with.

      This isn't exactly right, but I'm not a cryptography expert. But you get the idea. There's paper-based approaches too, where you can be given a receipt, then return and demand to see your original ballot based on that receipt. Same kinda idea. You may not even need the ballot hash thing. I'm unclear on the process.
    23. Re:If it were more open... by ewl1217 · · Score: 1

      Clearly you don't know our history too well. During the Gilded Age (about 1877-1900) in the United States, political machines, which controlled all levels of government, were commonplace in some cities. Because the ballots back then were open, those political machines could intimidate voters into voting their way. However, the Australian (secret) ballot put an end to that. Then again, history seems doomed to repeat itself...

    24. Re:If it were more open... by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 1

      First let me disclaim that I don't believe the USA (or UK) is operated by a shadow government. However, I don't believe such a thing is impossible. Which is why I'm playing D.A. to this argument.

      The cryptography example you provided is inherently flawed. The only thing needed to subvert it is a layer of deception set up by the people who count the votes. They can simply send you your vote back via the system you described... and never use it for anything else. Everyone will think they voted for who they voted for, while they may not have. And they'll never know any different. The reason for this is simple. If votes are counted by any private organization there will always be the possibility that the organization tampers with the data internally. The only possible way to garauntee an accurate result is public scrutiny of every single vote. When all votes are counted for and all individuals agree with their votes and the results line up with the winner of the election then, and only then, will you know for sure that the election was not rigged. And the only way to achieve that is to make all votes available to every citizen.

      It sounds like conspiracy theory -- it IS. Like I said, I don't believe the USA (or the UK) is operated by some clandestine group of world-wide power players. But I can't prove it. And I'd feel a little better if I could. Especially when elections declare a winner (Al Gore) and somebody else ends up in office. Just an example.

      TLF

      --
      I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
    25. Re:If it were more open... by Cederic · · Score: 1


      You do realise that in the UK voting is not secret?

      They can tie down a specific ballot to a specific voter. The information isn't publicly accessible, but it is there.

    26. Re:If it were more open... by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      Vote the wrong way and you'll pay.

      Not forgetting vote buying, of course - vote the right way and we'll pay.

    27. Re:If it were more open... by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      The cryptography example you provided is inherently flawed. Which I said when I wrote it, to prevent you from saying that it was flawed and thus throwing it out the window. Which you did anyway. :-( The point is, there are solutions, and you should go look for them instead of jumping to conclusions about how all solutions must be bounded.

      If votes are counted by any private organization there will always be the possibility that the organization tampers with the data internally. Now that's completely different from what I thought you were saying. Before, you said votes couldn't be anonymous. Now, you are saying they must be counted by the public. That's different. I agree with you there. But that system already is in place for the most part. Citizens can be election judges, and political parties as well as third-party organizations can monitor the vote counting process. So there is plenty of public scrutiny at that point.

      And the only way to achieve that is to make all votes available to every citizen. Yes, but they can still stay anonymous.

      It sounds like conspiracy theory -- it IS. Pointing out a potential security flaw isn't a conspiracy theory. But I know the feeling. I often point out such holes in things and I'm told "oh, nobody will do that..." which is missing the point. You don't fix it because someone will. You fix it because someone can.
  6. What difference does it make by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No career politician is suitable for office and we don't need an online system to have a "non of the above" option. There's a choice between candidates from 2 right-wing partys and the (guaranteed 3rd place) liberals, at least the vote rigging scandal will be amusing.

    1. Re:What difference does it make by Sj0 · · Score: 3

      If you reduce all parties to a single binary choice (Left or right), you'll fail no matter how you vote, and no matter how many choices you have.

      --
      It's been a long time.
    2. Re:What difference does it make by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What WOULD be absolutely stunning would be to release a trojan that changes any vote cast on an infected machine to become a, say, green party vote or some other that "nobody" votes for.

      I predict a landslide.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. Consititionally busted voting by Original+Replica · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Given security and privacy concerns in the states, how likely is this to appeal to US voters? "

    For anyone to trust online voting, we would need some sort of paper trail or other form of accountibility. Can I print out a vote receipt? Not in the US.
    Heck the only reason that we kinda trust the voting system we have is tradition and a lack of other choice. No the two party political system here is actually reliant on the electoral college and the untrackable vote to hold their two faceted monopoly on US Government. For further reading: http://gning.org/electoral.html

    --
    We are all just people.
    1. Re:Consititionally busted voting by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      I was thinking about this, and the designers are morons. We don't need a fancy electronic interface. That's just pork. What would work best would be having a system where you simply feed your paper voting card into an "electronic box" which would use the same technology used to grade multiple choice quizes for ages to determine who you voted for before sending the voting slip to a big bag of votes in case they need to be recounted. Giving every voting booth a big fancy CRT in an extremely breakable box is just begging to be gamed.

      --
      It's been a long time.
  8. Anonymity requires a physical ballot. by Burz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is no satisfactory way around this basic fact.

    Conduct elections online, and you open the process up to massive abuse where anonymity effectively become nullified.

    For audits and recounts, computer forensics aren't nearly up to the abilities of traditional forensics. Physical ballots are why the Florida 2000 problems were so readily apparent.

    Having computers print out physical (human-readable) ballots is fine. But trying to make an electronic "ballot" work anonymously is sheer stupidity.

    1. Re:Anonymity requires a physical ballot. by null-loop · · Score: 1

      Voting in the UK is only anonymous whilst the ballot is cast. Every ballot is numbered and the number is written against your name on the electoral roll. Weird UK law that most people don't know about, but it's been very effective in detering personation.

      --
      "If you unscrew Bill Gates' navel will the bottom fall out of the software market?"
    2. Re:Anonymity requires a physical ballot. by asuffield · · Score: 1

      There is no satisfactory way around this basic fact.


      There are many, mostly based on one-way hash functions or public-key cryptography. It's quite easy when you realise that the voting authority must already be trusted (or else they could simply lift fingerprints from the ballot papers and identify them that way) - you're only trying to arrange anonymity against third parties, the voting authority is assumed to know who you are.

      The problem is that all of the known methods require less stupid voters. If we could disenfranchise the stupid, we would not have a problem.
  9. ntl by Ramble · · Score: 0

    ntl:telewest is now called Virgin Media after they bought the mobile phone division from Virgin.

    --
    "Oh boy"
    1. Re:ntl by Johnnybw2 · · Score: 1

      The business devision of Virgin Media is ntl:Telewest. They kept the name as it sounds more business like then virgin media.

  10. Bad idea by Orig_Club_Soda · · Score: 1

    All you have to do is look at any kind of digital security and you can see that we will never be able to trust online results.

  11. An online survey? by kippers · · Score: 1

    I expect a higher than normal proportion of those who are online and taking an ntl survey would like online voting. I hardly see this as a fair sample.

  12. There is a good reason to retain the voting booth. by geoff+lane · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One of the major reasons for a confidential voting process taking place in the voting booth is that it is difficult to intimidate the voter or make vote buying effective. As soon as the vote takes place elsewhere all kinds of influences become possible and almost impossible to detect or prevent.

  13. Not to mention by Orig_Club_Soda · · Score: 1

    Voting is supposed to be anonymous. Voting online can pinpoint you pretty easily. We cant have both anonymity and validation at the same time.

  14. Computer voting = StupidByDesign by Burz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its bad enough with the online banking exploits out there, and those are kept in-check because there's no anonymity and both the bankers and the customers can check their statements and trace all activities back to their account numbers.

    I'll say it again: Computer voting is Stupid By Design.

    1. Re:Computer voting = StupidByDesign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Completely agree.
      It's one area where the current system works well and is the best, there is no reason to "improve" it with computer crap.

    2. Re:Computer voting = StupidByDesign by malsdavis · · Score: 1

      those are kept in-check because there's no anonymity and both the bankers and the customers can check their statements and trace all activities back to their account numbers.

      So um why not do the same with online voting?

      This would be easily done in the U.K. as all ballot papers already have a reference number written on them by the person manning the polling station which identifies the voter. Such a reference could be used in the exact same as an account number is used to add traceability to online banking. If people were concerned that their vote may have gone to someone other than who they wished to vote for, then they could log in to the voting website in the days after the election and check.

      If a log-in code of sufficient length is sent via the post and the usual e-commerce security techniques are followed, then state one way the system could be exploited?

      Preventing trojans from automatically voting would be trivial.
    3. Re:Computer voting = StupidByDesign by Burz · · Score: 1

      * DoS attacks on subnets with particular demographics.

      * Mis-indexed records, where multiple voters that chose identically are indexed to the same record... leaving unindexed entries with forged information. Oh, but Of course poll workers and election staff and candidates lawyers are going to be trained DBAs and will know what to look for... (not). In reality, it takes true IT expertise years to wend its way into analysis of such problems.

      * The physical ballot data is not readily available, except to a few guardians (who cannot realistically compile the data quickly and inconspicuously). But consider how sensitive personal data is now being stolen at a rate never witnessed before in history. We've got everyone from John Poindexter's buddies to the Russian mafia buying-up surreptitiously acquired electronic databases.

      Further, if Britons do not want to stand in line with each other for a few minutes on election day, then your society is screwed. There is no hypothetical increase in poll activity that would save you from such mutual antipathy.

      If you have to experiment with this sort of fire, you should at least make it count for something and use it as an enabling mechanism for more frequent elections and referendums, and more elected positions. That is the only condition under which I would submit to Internet voting (or other electronic balloting): an experiment in a more direct democratic process. You could even let unions (both would-be and established) utilize the system for their workplace democratic processes...

    4. Re:Computer voting = StupidByDesign by malsdavis · · Score: 1

      Not one of those "exploits" actually allows an attacker to change someone's vote.

      1) Dos could be annoying but unlikely as the website could be only made accessible form within the UK. The election close could easily be delayed if necessary and DoS attacks can be dealt with anyway.

      2) completely irrelevant unless using a deeply flawed design.

      3) Same as 2, and not really a problem for a centralized system as would surely be used.

  15. It's Just Asking For ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Boss: Ok, everybody line up and earn your raises at this computer terminal!
    Workers: Who are we voting for today?
    Boss: Tony Blair!
    Workers: We're telling!
    Boss: In that case, you're fired!

  16. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

    One of the major reasons for a confidential voting process taking place in the voting booth is that it is difficult to intimidate the voter or make vote buying effective. As soon as the vote takes place elsewhere all kinds of influences become possible and almost impossible to detect or prevent. There are already problems with the postal voting system; intimidation, coercion and fraud. Throw in the issues of traceability and massively insecure and trojan-ridden computers half the country have and online voting is a damned stupid idea.
    --
    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  17. Insecure by design? by quantaman · · Score: 1

    The biggest problem with the diebold machines is the lack of an auditable and voter-verified paper trail. How is it possible to have one with voting online? Either the voters have no way of making sure their vote was counted, or they are given a receipt which opens the door to vote buying and intimidation.

    The only thing I can think of was a story here sometime ago which mentioned a design of a ballot which provided a voter verifiable receipt without revealing their vote, but I recall it being quite complicated and I don't know if it would work online.

    Is there any way to implement online voting without making it unverifiable or allowing voter intimidation?

    --
    I stole this Sig
  18. Polling place virtues by badc0ffee · · Score: 1
    I am over 60, retired, and living in Florida. Been using networks from before the internet and have voted since I was 21. When you go to a polling place and vote, you get this neat little sticker that says "I voted, have you".

    I am all for electronic voting as long as it is NOT networked, paper trail for audit, open source, on a machine that is a one trick pony. A voting machine does not have to cost thousands of dollars.

    Still the biggest problem is people that are not qualified, uninformed, clueless to vote actually voting.

    Remember to vote early and vote often.

    --
    1011 1010 1101 1100 0000 1111 1111 1110 1110
    1. Re:Polling place virtues by dynamo52 · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't your sig be 1011 1010 1101 1100 0000 1111 1111 1110 1110 0000?

      --
      Like this comment? I accept Bitcoin! - 153sc8UUBXyp12ofQqfAWDmJrzyiKCYC1x
    2. Re:Polling place virtues by Kittenman · · Score: 1
      Interesting comments. Catches:

      - define not qualified, uninformed, clueless, etc. Most of the voting public would fit this bill (imho). The media doesn't do a grand job in educating the public in terms of issues, preferring to stick with personalities.

      - in the current system, the most qualifed, informed, clued-up voter who knows exactly what the issues are and votes accordingly gets his vote nullified by Joe Six-pack who's voting for the smiling man he saw on TV last night.

      And personally, I haven't voted yet because - none of the representatives represent my views - none of the reprepentatives are compelled to stick to their ticket. Once they're in, they do what they want (or are told) - rarely does a political party allow a representative to vote "conscience" - normally, it's a "party vote".

      That's not democracy.

      --
      "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
    3. Re:Polling place virtues by badc0ffee · · Score: 1

      Due to a batch of BAD C0FFEE, the sig is nybles instead of bytes. Odd, isn't it?

      --
      1011 1010 1101 1100 0000 1111 1111 1110 1110
    4. Re:Polling place virtues by badc0ffee · · Score: 1
      Not qualified: voting feelings instead of concience.

      Voting is a DUTY. Just like any other social responsibilities, like jury duty, paying your taxes, giving and donating to worthy causes.

      If you do not vote due to some lame excuse, you are not doing your duty. There is more on a ballot than just candidates. Vote for some of the other issues that are on the ballot, and leave the personalities blank if you want. That will also send a message. 1000 people voted: 999 against the tax increase for tea, 1 for it. Nobody voted for either candidate for dog catcher.

      --
      1011 1010 1101 1100 0000 1111 1111 1110 1110
  19. I deem that highly dangerous by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I see every day trojans that are able to manipulate your online banking, altering the amount transfered and the target account, all the while making it impossible for the user to even notice it if he doesn't know where to look (i.e. in the inner workings of his system).

    How much more interesting would it be to change his vote cast to a party you deem more desirable than the one that he actually wanted to pick?

    Democracy is too valuable a thing to hand it to a machine. Money, fine. Business, ok. But not politics.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  20. Brilliant by kbox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now we will be able to shop, gamble and decide the fate of our own countries education and healthcare systems from the comfort of our fat sweaty arses.. Let me know when i can download fresh air and i'll never have to leave my house ever again.

  21. ha, i'm a cynic by digitalsushi · · Score: 1

    There's no way the current US administration would want younger people voting in greater percentages than they have to put up with now. It's too bad the slack jawed yokels can't figure out how to vote online too -- it'd at least even the two groups out!

    --
    slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
    1. Re:ha, i'm a cynic by Moridineas · · Score: 1

      Wow, uninformed AND classist. Very nice sir.

  22. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by Zarhan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Already solved in Estonia. You can vote as many times as you want online, only your latest vote count. So if someone peers over your shoulder making sure you vote right, you can just change your vote as soon as he's gone. Also, by going to the actual physical voting booth you can also override any online votes if all else fails.

  23. No way to make it secure by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Yes, they can make it secure on the receiving end. But they cannot secure the machine of the user. Banks have that problem already and they're losing money because of it (i.e. it's something that they care about), and they can't fix it either.

    Why should politicians (you know, the guys with the tubes) have more success in securing something that doesn't really bother them too much?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  24. Really bad intference here by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just because somebody says they're more likely to vote online doesn't mean they want online voting.

    It just means they admit there are times they might vote online when they wouldn't bother to go to the polls. It doesn't mean they think that online voting is better, or as good.

    I've missed a couple elections over the last two decades. They were local elections for offices where I didn't think there was much difference between the candidates, and I was scheduled for business travel. It wasn't worth it to reschedule my trip or get an abstentee ballot. If we voted on line, I'd have voted remotely and I suppose I wouldn't have missed any elections.

    So technically, this article would count me as ready to "embrace" online voting, even though I'd fight the idea tooth an nail if it ever came up. If it was the only way to vote, I'd vote that way. I might, over the course of my life, vote in a half dozen elections that I would otherwise have skipped because they weren't important for me. However, I'd never trust any election result again, including the ones that are important to me.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:Really bad intference here by Inda · · Score: 1

      For the record this is not a pilot in the UK because I have voted online before. It was very easy; maybe a little too easy.

      This time they wanted me to fill out a paper form, send it back, wait for a PIN, jump through six hoops and say my name backwards ten times before being allowed to vote online. Hmm, no thanks.

      I'll walk to the booth this time. Now, which one of the eight shall I vote for...?

      --
      This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
  25. Paid for votes? by cyberianpan · · Score: 1

    A strong argument often raised against open voting is that disinterested people would have their votes purchased. Given that in most jurisdictions turnout rarely goes over 60% there's a lot of scope for purchase. This would then lead to the richest 1% having say 80% influence (which may not be a bad thing).

    1. Re:Paid for votes? by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I thought about this whole purchasing votes idea. I tried to imagine that I was one of the people who sold their vote. Let's say I sold it to Bush in '04. For example sake let's say now in '07 I really regret selling my vote to him because I think he's screwed up really badly. Maybe this next election I won't sell my vote, and in fact will go vote for who I think is the best. This is probably better than the original situation, in which I never would've voted at all.

      TLF

      --
      I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
    2. Re:Paid for votes? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      I thought about this whole purchasing votes idea. I tried to imagine that I was one of the people who sold their vote. Let's say I sold it to Bush in '04. For example sake let's say now in '07 I really regret selling my vote to him because I think he's screwed up really badly. Maybe this next election I won't sell my vote, and in fact will go vote for who I think is the best. This is probably better than the original situation, in which I never would've voted at all.


      So your argument for openly encouraging vote bribery is: "It gets the vote out, and maybe someday they won't vote the way they're bribed to." Wow. Just...wow.

      Chris Mattern
    3. Re:Paid for votes? by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I guess it is. It creates a system of balance that most people ignore or don't see entirely. Example of how it *might* have worked out. (I am not for or against anybody in this example)

      Year 2000 presidential election.

      GWB 'bribes' or 'buys' enough votes to win. 9/11 ensues. War and economic unrest ensue.
      People who sold their vote in 2000 are wondering if it was worth it. How much did they get? $100 each? $1000? $1000 seems barely possible considering to 'buy' just 1000 votes at such a cost would be a million dollars. Buying enough to just *hope* to win would be enormously costly, especially considering it doesn't garauntee a win.
      But for the sake of argument, GWB bought millions of votes for untold millions of dollars and he won. Nevermind that even if you DO buy your way in you are still impeachable.
      But the 2004 election rolls around. People are thinkin maybe they sold their vote to the wrong person. So they sell their vote to someone else. GWB doesn't get re-elected. The war in Iraq never takes this course. Blah blah ad nauseam.

      I'll leave it to you to decide if it would've been a good or bad thing. I'm just saying, I happen to think this system would be more robust than you think. Not to mention, I never said 'buying' votes should be legal. I simply said make them public. Make selling your vote and attempting to buy votes a federal offense...

      Anyway, you see why when you say "Wow. Just...wow." I don't quite get why.

      --
      I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
    4. Re:Paid for votes? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Because your scenario has all the reality of pretty pink unicorns.

      1) People aren't going to rethink. People don't care. People would rather rationalize their action than admit the possibility of being wrong. People will be bribed to vote the desired way, election after election, and, yes, they will be bribed for $100, or even $10, in numbers large enough to swing election. We're talking about people who can't be bothered to take half-an-hour to vote in a convenient polling station, no matter what's at stake. And the money will be there. GWB spent *$360 million* on his 2004 election. At $10 a vote, that would have bought 36 million votes, in an election where 120 million voted. And, yes, I firmly believe he would have found plenty of takers at $10 a vote.

      2) GWB will be impeached? Well, gee, he's got this Congress right here that he bought and paid for, same way he bought and paid for the Presidency. Who's going to impeach him?

      Chris Mattern

    5. Re:Paid for votes? by mcpkaaos · · Score: 1

      This would then lead to the richest 1% having say 80% influence (which may not be a bad thing).

      You don't think that's already the case?

      --
      It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
    6. Re:Paid for votes? by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 1
      Ok let me exercise a little mind over Mattern for a second.

      People aren't going to rethink. People don't care.
      So basically you think it's hopeless from the start. Not exactly a good standpoint for me to argue against, but I'll give it shot nevertheless.

      People would rather rationalize their action than admit the possibility of being wrong.
      I want to avoid general stereotypes of 'people' but I agree this happens to be the case. What I do not agree with is how this will affect a system of open voting. Furthermore, I already stated that I did not *ever* claim votes should be sold. Only that they should be out in the open. Indeed between the two systems, one with private voting and one with public, there appears to be precisely zero difference between them with regards to buying votes and the legality of that action!

      We're talking about people who can't be bothered to take half-an-hour to vote in a convenient polling station, no matter what's at stake.
      We aboslutely are. Which is exactly the reason online voting is important. Because it gets those people who cannot make it to the polls involved. And don't kid yourself, not everybody who misses a chance to vote did so because they were lazy.

      And the money will be there. GWB spent *$360 million* on his 2004 election. At $10 a vote, that would have bought 36 million votes, in an election where 120 million voted. And, yes, I firmly believe he would have found plenty of takers at $10 a vote.
      I've already stated that my original thoughts were not about buying votes. However, after entertaining the idea I still think the system would find a balance. There are extremely rich candidates on both sides of the partisan lines. It's not likely that the difference in payment between them would be large. Hence I don't see an imbalance on a partisan basis regarding buying votes. For example, John Kerry is wealthy beyond words.

      2) GWB will be impeached? Well, gee, he's got this Congress right here that he bought and paid for, same way he bought and paid for the Presidency. Who's going to impeach him?
      Checks and balances. Buying someone does not equate to them having loyalty to you. As soon as their greed or desires bring them to see you as an enemy they will turn on you.

      In any case, I'm not really worried about this whole 'buying votes' business. For one, because like I said earlier, it's already possible (and happens) and it wouldn't matter if votes became public, and for two, because I think that human nature would balance it out in the end.

      I'm really more interested in the possible downsides of public voting as compared to the obvious upside: everyone knows the elections weren't rigged by a clandestine organization, ever.

      TLF
      --
      I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
    7. Re:Paid for votes? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      So basically you think it's hopeless from the start.


      No, but I think history provides ample evidence that depending on the kindness of strangers is not a good way to proceed. It's not hopeless; you just have to take into account the people who will want to manipulate the system to their advantage, and the fact that the integrity and intelligence of the average person is, well, average.

      Checks and balances. Buying someone does not equate to them having loyalty to you. As soon as their greed or desires bring them to see you as an enemy they will turn on you.


      It does when you get to select who you're buying. Our hypothetical buying-the-elections president would have been careful to select and fund Congressman and Senator candidates he could have an iron hold over. And, in any case, why would their greed or desires turn against this president? He's put them in office, he'll keep them in office--as long as they're loyal. Where's their upside to selling him out?

      I'm really more interested in the possible downsides of public voting


      We've been explaining the downsides at some length. You don't seem to want to listen--or learn any history about how corruption has controlled democracies, either.

      Chris Mattern
  26. They'll never do that by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It would show in the statistics that the majority doesn't think any of the candidates are fit for the office.

    Presidental elections are mandatory here, and by custom the first thing the new president does is declare a general amnesty for all those who didn't come to vote. It would be a farce anyway.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:They'll never do that by Werkhaus · · Score: 1

      >It would show in the statistics that the majority doesn't think any of the candidates are fit for the office.

      They'll need to include an option to spoil the ballot paper somehow. I'm an ex-pat, still vote via post in UK general elections. Since I think that none of the current are suitable for office, I exercise my democratic right to participate in the system, but I protest by spoiling the ballot.
      Unless a None Of The Above option is included, how will I be able to have the same options with an internet ballot system?

    2. Re:They'll never do that by ewanm89 · · Score: 1

      I think it's called a DoS attack.

    3. Re:They'll never do that by cliffski · · Score: 1

      The inconvenience of voting is a trivial issue, its the way the votes are counted that puts people off.

      First past The Post (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurality_voting_sys tem) is our deeply flawed and useless voting system. In a hypothetical seat with 100 voters, you want to put the effort in to win 51 of them. winning 49 wastes all your effort, and any support beyond 51 is a waste as well. If you think you won't win 51 of those voters, you can basically treat them as cannon fodder for policies that let you win those 51 elsewhere.
      Thats why our system favours the labour party (strong support in working class areas, zero support in rural, wealthy areas) and the tories (the opposite), and totally screws the third party (lib dem). If your party comes second in every single constituency you get zero MPs, despite the fact that you could be a hugely popular party. The lib dems (3rd party) in the UK are woefully under represented in parliament.
      I've voted all my life and every vote was a waste of time, as I have always lived in a safe Tory Seat.
      Until we have some form of proportional representation, the UK elections will never have anything more than a vague connection with the opinions of the majority of voters, and thats ignoring entirely the proportion who don't vote.
      When we 'bought democracy to Iraq' we gave them PR, but we still don't have it in the UK. By any rational measurement, the UK is not a Democracy at all.

      --
      DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
    4. Re:They'll never do that by zsau · · Score: 1

      Here in Australia, Victoria and the ACT have both had trial electronic voting systems for blind voters. Voting is compulsory in Australia, and the compulsion is forced; this is good and proper: You don't get out of jury duty just because you don't want to do it.

      Anyway, the evoting system in Victoria was required by law to include a method to vote informally (i.e. spoil your ballot) either by not filling in all preferences or by skipping a number. (We have compulsory preferential voting: If you are registered to vote, you are required by law to fill in all preferences. So the law required that there was some method to break the law.)

      --
      Look out!
    5. Re:They'll never do that by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, blame it on being the "oldest democracy". You're the prototype.

      Unfortunately, unless you, the voter, stand up and start a campaign yourself, nothing will change. The ruling parties will certainly not want a proportional voting system, since it would definitly cut into their power base.

      We do have a proportional system, but we also had to wait like 700 years longer than you for any kind of elections. If it's better is debatable. It basically ends at the same level, you get two mass parties that split the power pretty evenly between them with smaller parties acting as coalition partners. What it does at least is to give the mass parties an incentive to work the agendas of the smaller parties into their fold to attract those fringe voters.

      The rise of the green party was certainly an incentive for the larger parties to add environmental concerns to their agendas to avoid losing voters towards them. Unfortunately, that also works for our right-wing parties. All too well.

      In general, though, I'd not want a "winner takes all" system. And if you want to change yours, start ralleying support for it. In that matter, nothing will change from within.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  27. Why not use Lottery Machines? by hoffbrau · · Score: 1

    With all the interest in secure voting online, why not use all the lottery machines? All you'd have to do is reprint the paper sheets to match the election. Plus everyone that votes would be entered into a lottery to win a million $$$. Chris

  28. How did they choose the 2300 sample? Online? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How did they choose the sample? This is Telewest, let me guess it was done online, or via email?

    Was the age group prechosen? Or did they select an age group that gave good results after taking the poll?

  29. Are they f**kin nuts!!! by lewkor · · Score: 1, Insightful

    With what has happened in the USA, are they absolutely nuts?!!! There is no way to verify the vote if that is on line. I am canadian and I read that Ontario is floating a trial balloon about having an online vote. Electronicly assisted elections are just a way to yell, "STEAL ME!".

  30. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by macraig · · Score: 1

    Yep, like a Republican guy's Democratic girlfriend watching him vote and promising him he'll get extra-sweaty sex later if he votes for this or that candidate. That same guy might stand up to intimidation or bribery, but how many guys can refuse that kinda offer?

  31. No we don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    May I say, as an Englishman who's opinions are pretty middle of the road and representative, we want no such thing.

    This report is a concoction. Based on the evidence of what I've seen in the United States I have no faith in
    electronic voting systems whatsoever.

    I will absent myself from the country and use my legally ensured right to vote by post if necessary.

  32. dr who by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    does anyone remember the Dr Who episode with the Slug thing, mandatory e-voting, and presidential elections with
    execution of the president when he became unpopular, the companion was Peri I think ?

  33. Why is security important? by cdrguru · · Score: 1

    OK, so you have a web page that allows anyone to vote. Maybe you restrict it by IP address to a geographical location, as much as that is possible. No restriction in multiple voting.

    If you are motivated enough, you can vote 100 times for the same candidate. So what? If you are really motivated or have enough funding, you can get 1000 people to enter votes for you. How is this different from the current situation where party hacks drive around picking up people to take them to the polling place today?

    If the election is a complete bore and nobody is really interested, they get maybe 10 votes. Better than the 3 they get today.

    If there is a lot of interest, people stay glued to their computers voting over and over again. The interest of those that are motived substitutes for the utter apathy of the majority that don't care. Vote totals go up and maybe next time some more people are interested.

    Fraud? What is vote fraud in such an environment? Given there are maybe a million people that are really interested in the US out of 300 million people you would have votes counted in the low billions, assuming some sweatshop places chain people to computers instead of sewing machines. Any attempted fraud would be quickly overwhelmed by real votes coming in.

    Popular candidates get lots of votes. Britney Spears (in the US) might end up as a Senator. It would be completely driven by popularity, net exposure and the motivation of people. How many votes does American Idol get vs. the number of people that voted in the last presidential election?

    Combine this with a 3 month presidential term so there are lots of elections and we wouldn't have a voter apathy problem in the US. We might have David Duke as president for three months, but what could he do in three months? We might have President Natalie Portman, but again for only three months. The advantages of this would be incredible - a 24 hour cable channel dedicated to candidates, newsletters, stage performances, massive contests and the like all centered around the now-omnipresent election.

    Sound silly? How about a country where 20-30% of the people vote and most of them aren't informed past making the "Republican" or "Democrat" mark on the ballot? How about a country where most of the actual people getting elected are unopposed? What would be so wrong with having the candidates sing and dance to get elected if it got 1/10th the interest there is in American Idol?

  34. And vice-versa... by mangu · · Score: 1
    maybe if you can't be bothered to make that effort then your vote shouldn't count...


    OTOH, maybe if you can't be bothered to learn how to use the internet then your vote shouldn't count?


    There are many tasks that I could do in a 200m radius, but I still do online if I can. And it's not just a question of effort, it can be a question of time, security, convenience, maybe it's raining, etc.

    1. Re:And vice-versa... by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      I don't understand. This is a geeky forum, with people probably more knowledgeable about crypto, internet security, privacies issues, etc... than the average Joe. But still nobody thinks that internet voting is inherently insecure.
      Let me sum all the problems :
      * Voter's PC vulnerability. We all know that the average computer user cannot secure its computer correctly. If some people manage to get their credit card number stolen because of spyware / scams, why wouldn't this work for a vote.
      * Cryptography : A good online voting system requires people to be able to check that their vote is correctly counted while still remaining correctly anonymous. This is possible, but you have to be a crypto expert to check that system. And you know that the implementation will probably incorrect with nobody caring about it.
      * Privacy : Even a correct crypto implementation would bear a privacy problem. Identites will be hidden thanks to cryptographic algorithms, but this secret should be kept at least during the whole lifetime of every voters, that would be 70 years at least. And we all know that quantum computers, if they can be made, will probably be made during this time period and will be able to break all existing practical crypto algorithms.

      Conclusion : Support paper voting. You are the "computer knowledgeable elite" that people rely on to trust electronic/IT devices. Just say them risks are too high.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    2. Re:And vice-versa... by Hyperspite · · Score: 1

      Finally, after all those people were bitching about Diebold, and bringing up those same points approximately 5 billion times about local networks and such, I was shocked and amazed that people were actually considering this as a viable option. Man slashdot, do you have no memory?

  35. Consider this before you *bah* by ushering05401 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of my biggest gripes about elections is how simplified the issues have become, and how difficult it is to understand what each candidate *really* stands for.

    IF they instituted online voting they could have drop down boxes for each candidate with summaries of opinions and hyperlinks to voting records, speeches... Hell, they could even link in the publically disclosed lists of contributors. I believe most voters don't have the time or inclination to do this sort of research on their own, but might be more inclined if the info was more easily accesible.

    A voter could spend all the time they like reading about each candidate and issue on the ballot *while* casting their vote.

    All it would take is some legislation and a bit of funding to amass the linked materials.

    Political spin would have a reduced effect on anyone with enough motivation to click a couple of links.

    Regards.

    1. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by VJ42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      summaries of opinions and hyperlinks to voting records, speeches... If you are in the UK, then I think that this is what you're looking for: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    2. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by jimicus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      IF they instituted online voting they could have drop down boxes for each candidate with summaries of opinions and hyperlinks to voting records, speeches... Hell, they could even link in the publically disclosed lists of contributors. I believe most voters don't have the time or inclination to do this sort of research on their own, but might be more inclined if the info was more easily accesible.

      The current mechanism of voting in the UK is:

      1. You walk into a small booth, about the size of a telephone box. It's completely open on one side, but the other sides consist of a sheet of board about 7' high.
      2. You draw a cross next to the name of the person you want to vote for.
      3. You fold your ballot paper once and place it in a locked metal box in the middle of the room.

      It would be trivially easy to print out information similar to what you describe and pin it up inside the booth. I suspect the reason why they don't is because if the slightest piece of information that gets put up is wrong, or perhaps somehow unfair to a specific party, then the wronged party would have kittens.

      This isn't a problem which can be solved by adding "... on the Internet!" to the voting procedure. About the most detail they'd be likely to provide would be a link to the party website.

    3. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Quantam · · Score: 1

      What in your entire experience with human beings makes you think people would spend the effort to read all that even if you did provide links to it? To give a truly objective report you could only give links to full speeches or statements, voting history (where the voters would have to read the entire text of the bills the person vote for, etc.), charters of funding parties, etc. Even if you did create a central list of links, nobody has that kind of time (and as we all know people wouldn't spend that much time even if they had it). If you wanted to give summaries of their positions, there's clearly and unavoidably cherry-picking and editorial condensing due to the drastic reduction in information, which would create biased reviews (and don't even think about trying to get all sides to agree on a single fair and representative bullet-point summary of any candidate's positions).

      --
      You have tried to support your argument with faulty reasoning! Go directly to jail; do not pass Go, do not collect $200!
    4. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect the reason why they don't is because if the slightest piece of information that gets put up is wrong, or perhaps somehow unfair to a specific party, then the wronged party would have kittens.
      I don't think that the intent was to make any third party collect and publish this information, but to make it mandatory for the candidates to supply it (and make them ineligible to be a candidate or remove them from office if they fail to provide correct information on time).
    5. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by nwbvt · · Score: 1

      We already have plenty of attempts to educate voters, at least here in the States. First, every candidate spends millions of dollars on TV campaign ads that are force fed to voters when they watch TV. That requires even less effort that clicking on a link by a ballot. And of course when you do go to the polls, the area around is flooded with campaign ads, right up to the distance from the actual polls where campaign ads are no longer allowed. What, you think those ads are too often biased, unfair, and favor the candidate who has the biggest pocketbook? Well why do you think your system would be any different?

      --
      Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
    6. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by flukus · · Score: 1

      Thats what http://your-voice.com.au/ attempts to do, at least for Australian audiences.

      your-voice.com.au allows voters to ask candidates their own questions, not what someone decides the big election questions are.

      The only downside at the moment is getting enough people to request their candidates join.

    7. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by mrbluze · · Score: 1

      I was just about to *bah when I read your comment :)

      I reckon they should have internet voting, but for more than just candidates. Every policy should be able to be voted on, giving a mandate to carry out each one. In short, I think the public should have seats at parliament (maybe 1/3 of them or something) and have veto powers over certain legislation by virtue of voting against it online.

      Since our democracies have become such a farce (for example, who ever was asked to vote directly on the issue of the Iraq war?), we should work on introducing a truly democratic system, where representation can be bypassed by people casting their votes directly on day to day legislation.

      --
      Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
    8. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by TheoMurpse · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      You draw a cross next to the name of the person you want to vote for.
      Can Jewish voters draw a Star of David?

      On a related note, is "cross" British for the symbol "x"?
    9. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Millenniumman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If someone has internet access, which is necessary for this ridiculous scheme anyway, then they have the resources at their disposal to easily find all the information in the world about the candidates they will be voting for. If they choose not to do so, they don't care. You can't force information on them.

      And no, you can never, ever, expect to get objective and complete political information from one source, especially a government one. You'll have the same "political spin", but one sided.

      I can see it now:

      "The incumbent supports everything good, has done a wonderful job, and here are links to a few speeches he read."
      "Running against him is a jerk, and here are links to a few embarrassing quotes"

      --
      Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
    10. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Canordis · · Score: 1

      You might think that explains the name "noughts and crosses".

      --
      I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.
    11. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Hyperspite · · Score: 1

      No, you know what mob rule will do. Some politician will advocate a position that boils the blood of the good clean pure people, like homosexuality, and bam. What have you. This is why the US has a bicameral congress with representatives with short terms, and representatives with long terms. This way they can sit down and actually consider the issue objectively.


      What might be fun is if we set up a digg like system to rate our politicians. If they get too far into the negatives for too long, then bam outta there.
    12. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      Except that in the US, we call it "tic tac toe," so an American still would have no inkling that "cross" is British for "x" ;)

      But yeah, that does explain things.

    13. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by mrbluze · · Score: 1

      This is why the US has a bicameral congress with representatives with short terms, and representatives with long terms. It's also much cheaper to buy off a representative than it is to buy off an entire population.
      --
      Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
    14. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Hyperspite · · Score: 1

      Eh, I never said the system was perfect. I'd prefer some greedy exec lines their pockets with gold at the expense of 30 people's lives than let some guy as crowd rousing as Hitler was take over.

    15. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by SilentSheep · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up. Thanks for that link it is extremely interesting and useful, and i did not know about ti.

      --
      .
    16. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by VJ42 · · Score: 1

      Even if you did create a central list of links, nobody has that kind of time (and as we all know people wouldn't spend that much time even if they had it). As I pointed out in another post, we already have that "central list of links", and AFAIK no political party has yet claimed that it is biased in any way. The reason? They gather data on every single speech that evey politian makes, and then report on the way that they vote (and summerise if they are "for" or "against" a particular measure). The British Government also publishes Hansard online, and you can watch our polititians in action, live and unedited thanks to the BBC. The unbiased information is already out there, and I, for one, use it to help me decide my vote.
      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    17. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The word "cross" is reserved only for the religious symbol? Notice that if you rotate that symbol 45 degrees it has a striking resemblance to that mark you can make in the box on the ballot form. It's called a cross because one of the lines crosses the other. The angle doesn't matter!

    18. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by c_g_hills · · Score: 1

      If only they did this for local elections, not just the government elections, which is what the elections on May 3rd are for.

    19. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by Fastolfe · · Score: 1

      I think people should be required to take a quiz on every issue before they vote on it, which tests whether they understand the issue and its possible consequences. The weight of their vote would be multiplied by their score on the quiz.

    20. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      What the hell? How is this flamebait?

    21. Re:Consider this before you *bah* by tchalvak · · Score: 1

      I believe you're ignoring what it would eventually devolve into: Each candidate would end up linking directly from the evoting location to 1 minute youtube-like clip of themselves espousing whatever their issue of the hour was.

  36. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by null-loop · · Score: 1

    The insecurity of the client is possibly the biggest problem, but is solvable. The use of a pre-encrypted ballot (where each candidate / option in a contest is assigned a 4 digit code unique to the voter), ensures that a man-in-the-middle or trojan can't inspect the vote (it's a 4 digit number) or alter it (can't tell what to change it to). We're very keen to trial the system over here, which is what the pilots are all about, figuring out what people can and can't do / will and won't accept.

    --
    "If you unscrew Bill Gates' navel will the bottom fall out of the software market?"
  37. What, all 3 of them want to vote online? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It won't last, we'll be down to 2 by the next election.

  38. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by caitriona81 · · Score: 1

    I don't know if that completely solves it, but it comes close.

    My only big concern is about people that are controlled more tightly than simple coercion - those in cults, under control of possessive spouses (some of whom are known to keep their partners essentially under lock and key without any unsupervised access to any communication devices), and the like.

    As an additional safeguard, I think it's necessary that the voting system be structured in such a way that either only the voter knows the meaning of their ballot, or that only the voter knows whether or not they have recorded their ballot successfully.

    A challenge/response step with a PIN might partially perform such a function - the PIN would constitute both the challenge, and the "signature" on the ballot, and the response you would receive back would be a sequence of numbers based on that PIN, such that some quick mental arithmetic could validate the response, but only if a certain secret were known.

    In this way, so long as the PIN and secret were not compromised, the person could pretend to vote, and it would look like a successful vote each time. Certain values of the PIN and secret could also convey additional meanings, such as to covertly shut down the online voting account until the user appears in person before election officials to reset their PIN and secret.

    I'm not sure how much additional security this gives against more sophisticated attacks - keyloggers and the like could still expose the PIN being used unless the PIN had to also be permuted. While I think the problem of maintaining a secret ballot can at least be partially solved in online elections, I'm not sure if the degree of assurance required can ever truly be met.

  39. NO NO NO by CranberryKing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    E-voting is the worst idea that ever had an e- in front of it. Just don't do it. If it were up to me, I would make voting even more manual and paper based. Do all the totaling manually with a pencil and let me check your work. Absolutely THE WRONG application of technology.

    Now I know that there will be lots of geeks immediately thinking of technical feasibility and a system architecture seems to want to start drawing itself in my head too. But this is just one thing you never want to make "more efficient".

    Why? Because YOU CANNOT TRUST GOVERNMENT. You simply cannot. The framers of the US constitution understood that concept very well (really the anti-federalists more so but whatever). We have documentation that is quite explicit on this point. It's not being patriotic to hand your power over to a faceless system that will naturally want to preserve itself; that's being idiotic. Liberty is something that needs to be guarded and protected very diligently because there will always be someone willing to take away if you let them and once that happens you may never get it back. The right and the left in the US never address the fact the the 2nd Amendment to the US Consistution (well regulated militia, bear arms) was not put there so citizens could protect themselves from break-ins, thieves or highwaymen. It is so they can protect themselves from the government.

    Just leave this one alone. We can have all the conveniences in the world thanks to technology, but people will just have to deal with the tremendous inconvenience of getting off their asses and going out and manually voting sometimes.

    1. Re:NO NO NO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Skynet became aware. Then it voted.

    2. Re:NO NO NO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. We should make voting even more manual. The only votes that should count are the votes of those people who REALLY want their vote to count. I say that all voting centers should have a five mile long track, in which voters will have to outrun a hungry lion, and only those who succeed would get to vote.

  40. Neutral Third Party by sirkha · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Online voting would be great! But only if it was administered by a neutral third party. Like Switzerland. Or better yet, a Swiss bank.

    1. Re:Neutral Third Party by ookabooka · · Score: 1

      Wonder how long they would stay neutral.

      --
      If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
  41. In Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Canada we have an internet system called E-Pass you register off of based on your social insurance number and registered government address, they mail you a confirmation number and then you finish your registration in a few days. Once thats all settled you can file, adjust and view your tax returns, apply for all the various forms you can think of (birth certificates, passports) online and save all your information. It feels very secure, requires you to enter your password twice and use one that is 8-12 characters long including 1 capital and 2 numbers. I'd assume this would be easily scalable for online voting and that's something I'd really like to see put forward.

    1. Re:In Canada by koxkoxkox · · Score: 1

      The problem is not to know whether it "feels secure", but whether it IS secure or more precisely whether it could be hacked.

      Considering the importance of elections and the trust it requires from the citizens to guarantee a democratic system, I don't think online voting is transparent enough. Some people won't trust the result as they do with paper vote, and it is a dire threat to the whole democratic system. The problem is not an actual exploit but the possibility of one, and this possibility is always present, with any computer and any network.

  42. Well... by axia777 · · Score: 0

    Then certain British voters a fools. Big fat stinking fools. Sorry to put it that way, but it true. This has security train wreck written all over it. But if they REALLY want to want to expose themselves to this, it is their call. Their call to have their vote stolen and manipulated that is.

  43. Intimidating the voter by mangu · · Score: 1
    in the voting booth it is difficult to intimidate the voter or make vote buying effective


    One thing that must be noted is that voter intimidation must be a scalable process to be effective. Even if one or other particular voter could be intimidated by neighbors or relatives at home, it's much easier to do it wholesale when everybody has to go to a certain place to vote.


    Let's say the local drug lord has spread the word that "for every vote for candidate X a random house will be burned down in the neighborhood". When voters get near the voting station they see young thuds flicking cigarette lighters. That would be a pretty effective way to get the message through, much less work than going from home to home, ringing the door, and asking "do you have a light?"

  44. Misleading presentation by Syberghost · · Score: 1

    Here's what the survey actually says:

    "Half of the kids who rarely vote say they'd probably vote if they could do so without getting off their fat asses, but two thirds of the people who actually vote say it's crap. Oh, and a trial run shows the lazy kids are full of crap anyway; when they can vote this way, they still don't."

    Let people use email to request their absentee ballots; evoting, done. Next problem.

  45. proxy vote by nausicaa3000 · · Score: 1

    Hasn't this problem of online voting already been solved? Publicly traded companies use proxyvote for their annual meetins/directors/proposals. https://proxyvote.com/

  46. In an online vote conducted by telewest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....the majority of young people who voted online said they trust online voting.

  47. Younger voters and e-voting by petrus4 · · Score: 1

    "I begin with the young. We older ones are used up. We are rotten to the marrow. We are cowardly and sentimental. We are bearing the burden of a humiliating past, and have in our blood the dull recollection of serfdom and servility. But my magnificent youngsters! Are there any finer ones in the world? Look at these young men and boys! What material! With them, I can make a new world. This is the heroic stage of youth. Out of it will come the creative man, the man-god."

    "When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side,' I say calmly, 'Your child belongs to us already...What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing but this new community'."


    -- Adolf Hitler

  48. In related News - Mickey Mouse is the New King. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It Seems Mr. Mouse pwnd the election, as all your vote servers are belong to us!!!1!!!11!!one one!!one.

  49. No Fscking Shit, Sherlock! by jimicus · · Score: 1

    NTL:Telewest are a cable company/ISP.

    They're hardly likely to promote research which says "Actually, most people couldn't care less about voting online."

  50. Politics and software are so related... by Fuzzums · · Score: 1

    If you vote with buggy software you'll get a buggy president.

    --
    Privacy is terrorism.
  51. Security of the vote? by volkris · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fundamental issue that I've never seen addressed concerns the security of the voter himself. Everyone is focused on encryption and security of the vote once it's been placed, but what I never see any discussion of is the following:

    One major reason to have polling places is to attempt to guarantee a situation where a voter can go into a little room and cast his ballot without any threat and with deniability. There's nobody in the booth with him ensuring that he's voted the way he's been told or paid to vote.

    Allowing people to vote from wherever they want MAY still grant anonymity, but we'll never be sure of the circumstances behind the vote. There could be a man with a gun or a checkbook watching the ballot being cast.

    Even if all of the engineering and political challenges are overcome, this sort of voting has more fundamental issues that may not be solvable.

  52. no by kurtis25 · · Score: 1

    I don't think this is a good idea. I'm a big fan of simplification but I think this is a bad thing to simplify. And don't get me wrong I think more people need to vote but I think online voting would create a system where more peopled voted (the good) but more people who don't care about the system would vote (the bad). I think by forcing people to go to polling places they are showing that they do care and appreciate the system, I think if the online voting was allowed everyone would vote so we would get the 55% of regular voters who care enough to put some effort into the vote and then 45% of voters who are willing to give a vote as much time as it takes to /. headlines.

  53. I guess the rat's gotta be shocked at least once.. by umbra_dweller · · Score: 1

    I personally think it is a horrible idea - I am in favor of paper ballots, with perhaps limited numbers of electronic booths for certain people who need them - handicaped etc... But I can't see how online voting will add much to the system. However, I don't think it's an idea that will die until there is at least one major disaster involving hacking, extreme corruption or something along those lines.

  54. Internet voting right now is insane by bit01 · · Score: 1

    Millions of PC's have been compromised and are in botnets. To talk about using M$ PC's, and to a lesser extent even non-M$ PC's, for something as important as voting right now is insane.

    It doesn't matter how "secure" the voting software is if it's run on an insecure PC. In many elections changing the vote by a few percent is all you need to get a new winner.

    Odds on organized crime will get involved. Until botnets and significant PC compromise is a thing of the past internet voting is impossible.

    ---

    Terrorism. The all-purpose excuse.

  55. UK government systems are insecure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately we can't trust our government to run large IT datbases securely. They just accidently published 7000 doctors personal details online including sexual preferances, ethnicity and addresses.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6597823.st m Why should the voting public expect any better?

  56. Pollster promotion not factual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suspect this is heavily weighted considering the research agency is an internet-only one possibly with interest in online voting.

  57. Where is the secrecy of vote. by veso_peso · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Voting from home is voting from an uncontrolled enviroment, where someone can watch what I type or what I have on the screen and I can't see how this problem can be solved by any technical means.
    Let's say I want to force/pay 1000 people to vote for me. With online voting I can setup a private "voting office" and watch carefully if they really vote for me.
    Or my boss can force me to vote for his favorite candidate for example. Someone can tell his whole family to vote what he wants to.
    This is not possible with the current voting system, where I vote alone, in a secured area.

    Online voting will make possible not only for the government or some powerfull people to track a vote, but for everyone who has some influence on the voter.

  58. What about a 2 stage voting process? by tilde_e · · Score: 1

    (Slightly off-topic, but on-line voting would certainly make this work a lot smoother.)

    The first stage should be about defining the ticket - The general population votes to establish the most important issues (an incumbent should be able to disseminate information with his or her opinion about the matter before this vote occurs).

    The second stage is about finding the individual best suited to hold the pre-defined position - A candidate then focuses on a campaign about how he or she will interpret the definition of the job and how he or she has the necessary experience.

    Think about it like every couple of years, a contract job ends and a new one opens up. This is about government employment, is it not? Why not focus on employment-like things rather than popularity contest-like things? I think some kind of independent council can be formed to help ensure that these government employees meet their contracts.

  59. What is the point? by bbtom · · Score: 1

    Elections are once every few years. The polling station is 30 minutes walk or about three minutes drive. It's open from 7am-10pm. The physical process of voting is pretty easy. When I used to live up in the Midlands, it was maybe a ten minute walk to the polling station.

    What needs to be fixed is I want someone I can vote for who isn't a self-aggrandizing, liberty-stomping, populist arsebag who will sell out my freedom for whatever trinkets of tabloid approval are currently in vogue. Much as I love the Internet, it is not likely to make our political leaders any less dishonest. They're all fucking useless shits regardless of whether my vote is delivered over dead-tree or TCP/IP.

    Plus, I live in one of the most rigidly Conservative-voting constituencies in the country, so my vote is almost totally irrelevant. I'm not sure I'm going to be voting on Thursday.

    --
    catch (HumourFailureException e) { e.user.send("You, sir, are a humourless idiot."); }
    1. Re:What is the point? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think you are right.

      Here in France we are in presidential elections right now. Politics used to say that French were not interested in politics because we had a very low participation rate in 2002, that voting was to hard, that people weren't educated enough to understand how important it was to go voting. Never, ever, they wondered if it could be because French felt that political parties had no interesting propositions to make. This year, nothing changed in the way of voting, but we broke participation records. Only thing that changed : some candidates are 20 years younger than those in 2002. They bring more interesting ideas.
      When people vote has a chance to change something, they'll go voting. Period.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    2. Re:What is the point? by Loke+the+Dog · · Score: 1

      Electronic voting is not pointless because elections are only every few years, its the other way around. Elections are only every few years because electronic voting has not been implemented. It would allow citizens to choose on what level they want to participate in the democracy. As a start, we could simply drop regular elections and let voters switch party whenever they wanted to. That would change a thing or two, I believe.

      And you cannot look at the distances for the vast majority. Democracy has to cater to minorities aswell, and a tiny minority probably lives over an hour away from the polling station. For them, it would be very unfair if some people could change their vote whenever they wanted, which is part of the reason why most of the world use such indirect systems.

    3. Re:What is the point? by bbtom · · Score: 1

      As the old adage says: if voting did anything, they would have outlawed it already.

      Not to poke my nose in to French politics, but it's a perfect example of what I'm saying - both Royal and Sarkozy fit my descriptions of politicians down to a tee. I saw Sarkozy speak last December in Paris and he's a control freak nutbag, a wannabe conservative who'll say all the right-sounding things on crime and immigration but won't actually make our lives less regulated. I imagine Royal isn't much better, although she'll just say all the lefty-sounding things on human rights and welfare but won't actually make us any freer. Both will probably be introducing legislation that'll make any sane Internet user scream and will do nothing to bring technology investment or innovation to Europe. Still, at least YRO will have some fun new stories that it can cover from France if Sarkozy wins.

      --
      catch (HumourFailureException e) { e.user.send("You, sir, are a humourless idiot."); }
    4. Re:What is the point? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      Don't tell me about this...
      But the first round was interesting, a 3rd force got 18% of voices. Bayrou is the second French politician (after Rocard) who actually understood what computers and internet was all about.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  60. It works for some by GuyfromTrinidad · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    A colleague of mine is Australian and is now living half way around the world from his homeland. His local government elections are coming up(and the article mentioned focused on local government elections not Prime ministerial elections) and he is frustrated by the vote by post process and said he would be willing to vote online. I know a lot of the the respondents are thinking Bush v Gore but voting online can be a viable option for expatriates. The major issue of course is security but the majority of comments sounded like paranoia rather than genuine concerns.

    --
    End of line
  61. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by Kijori · · Score: 1

    The other problem is insecurity of the place; it doesn't matter how secure the transmission is if there's someone watching you cast your vote to make sure you voted for the right person; with a voting booth you can't vote unless you're alone and no one waiting outside knows whom you voted for.

  62. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Already solved in Estonia. You can vote as many times as you want online, only your latest vote count.
    Thank you for this information. Mow, the trojan I'm writing can change all their votes to my candidate. And because I'll change votes only of people who already voted, it can't be found via checking for anomalous vote count. You will be eaten first.

    Yours,
      Elect Cthulu for world domination campaign - Why elect a lesser evil?
  63. Let's *not* allow online voting by Richard_J_N · · Score: 1

    I really don't want to be governed by a party that people couldn't even be bothered to spend 10 minutes voting for. One advantage of the current system is that it explicitly disenfranchises anyone who doesn't care enough to vote.

    Furthermore, the security/anonymity issues for e-voting are fatal. And it's not like the current system is even slightly broken: in the UK, you can vote from 8am-10pm, usually within 1/2 mile of your house, and never have to queue more than 5 minutes (usually not at all). Postal votes already cover the infirm/elderly/ex-pats.

  64. Terrible idea by DefenderThree · · Score: 1, Informative

    If it runs on a computer, it can be hacked. If it can be hacked, it can and will be abused. This is an acceptable drawback for Slashdot polls, but elections have infinitely much more at stake.

  65. naive boy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I'm sorry...but you are really, REALLY just not a very clever human being. I don't want to be harsh, but all your scenarios are really not that smart, and everything you say speaks of your lack of sense. I'm sorry...you are just not smart.

    When you finally realize these dissappointing realities about yourself, it will be hard for awhile. You might even need meds to get you through. I don't envy you....

  66. UK voters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Calling "nearly half of the younger respondents" = UK voters ?!?!

  67. A Bad Idea by Millenniumman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a bad idea, for many reasons.

    For every reason that people oppose electronic voting, this is much worse. The machines aren't even visible to the voter, there is no paper trail at all. It's a black box, but there isn't even a box visible to the voter. You have no idea if your vote was counted correctly.

    Securing the system will be very hard, with tons of people trying to hack it, and being able to do so anonymously and from anywhere in the world.

    People will have to get some kind of password to vote, and will have to register, and at least the former can't be done on the internet. This eliminates the purpose of online voting. I guess you could send everyone a password, though.

    It will open new doors for corruption. There will be no secret ballot at all, and selling your vote will be incredibly easy. As will voter coercion.

    And last, it has no great benefit. If someone is too lazy and/or apathetic to go to the polls to vote, they don't need to be voting.

    --
    Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
    1. Re:A Bad Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Having to click on some gravy-train-wannabe-MP's mugshot every four years sounds like far too much effort to participate in democracy.

      Hopefully they'll make the system scriptable so my PC can auto-vote for me to infinity and beyond with options such as:

      Vote randomly.
      Vote against the incumbent.

  68. vote online? by vivian520 · · Score: 1

    well,it is rediculously...to vote online is not a bad thing in one side.some common vote as webvote can vote online as anonymous....for this the outcome of the vote is not very exactitute at some extent. but,it is not very important ... however,if goverment vote online starts its way....how abou it?you guess? in my opinion,vote online ib public is not pertinency...just as you know

  69. lies, retards, and electronic voting machines by myspace-cn · · Score: 1

    you got to ask yourself what the fuck is wrong with the youth believing so called leaders that this shit is secure. you got to ask yourself how accurate is the poll they did. you got to ask yourself how are you going to validate an electronic "0" (low dc voltage) and an electronic "1" (high dc voltage) when humans can not physically see electricity in the first place. oh yeah, that's right cause i said so, so it must be. well fuck it, if this poll is true, which i doubt, then fuck you all, you do not deserve civil rights, or control of anything you fucking retards. you can have a nuclear holocaust after some psycho cracks your central tabulator, you can eat shit when your sick and you can go fuck yourself when your drafted into this bullshit oil war. but i wouldn't expect the uk to get it. the us don't get it because the media is corporate, so sell your fucking souls for the corporate bullshit and reap what you sow.

    see you fuckers in burning fucking hell.

  70. ERROR 404 Your Vote Is Stolen! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Error 404

    Your vote is lost.
    It can not be found.
    It must not exist.
    You don't have the right to vote.

  71. The biggest target by th3rmite · · Score: 1

    This is akin to those "hack me" competitions. It's an open invite for all of the hackers/crackers around the world to concentrate all of their efforts on a single system! Think of the amount of knowledge we will gain about network security! Many of you have already started thinking of the feasibility of implementing a solution to pull this off, I for one am already thinking of how to hack it.

  72. Fine for you by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Rain , snow or sun, I have roughly 25-30 kilometer to do. And if I want to vote per corrrespondance, I have to get the special paper at the same place. Which make this quite useless.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  73. Enough with the "By Design" crap by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

    DRM is "defective by design", because it is designed to make defective anything it applies itself to. If anyone implements online voting, I'm sure they won't design it to be insecure, defective, or stupid (as someone mentioned earlier). Leave it alone!

    --
    You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    1. Re:Enough with the "By Design" crap by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Quite true, the "by design" part was probably stuck in my head since I've been thinking about DRM so much recently, it didn't occur to me that the title communicated a concept quite different than I was thinking of.

      I was trying to communicate that I suspected any online voting solution have to deal with certain security issues that could not be fully resolved.

      If I wrote the post again I'd choose a title such as "Fundamentaly Insecure?"

      --
      I stole this Sig
  74. it offers benefits that we ought to consider by hxnwix · · Score: 1

    Nobody can grab you out of the voting line for a long ride in a windowless van if you vote from a mobile phone.

    Nevertheless, it's clearly impossible for one voting server running open source software and closely monitored by representatives of every major party to handle the load.

    Man, I hate it how supercomputers are sooooo slow.

  75. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by jesterzog · · Score: 1

    How do you stop Crazy Person A from locking up Person B for "safety" until the end of the election? Or threatening some kind of violence against Person B simply because they might have gone to a polling booth when Crazy Person A's attention was diverted?

  76. E-voting, write-in candidates and 'bad karma' ... by Rockin'Robert · · Score: 0

    Great! Xlnt! Brilliant! Perfection! Then slashdot hackers can create a truly 'democratic' virtual write-in / type-in candidature ballot bot - so I can run in every e-voting election and rig the elections as usual, globally, then not show up (like many politicians ... as usual), to then retire and live happily ever after on several government sponsored retirement packages all at once. Now that's what I call modern 'Community (er - Self-) Service'.

    RR

    PS. It took some serious doing to keep one's privacy and engineer a 'bad karma' profile.
    "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

  77. Identity theft by n3tcat · · Score: 1

    So will this be a new target for identity theft? Someone steals info on a given demographic in a certain region and sells it to one of the running parties for a price. The people who don't vote wouldn't have any idea, and the people who do vote would know because they either would not be allowed to change their vote, or they would at least see that they voted in the past.

    Hopefully they find something to verify their identities properly.

  78. 100% foolproof guaranteed exploit by Builder · · Score: 1

    I posted this here a while back about another trial, but they already found massive coercion and voter fraud in the mail-in elections here.

    1. Go to relatives house
    2. Hold gun to their head and insist that they vote for who you tell them to
    3. Watch them cast the vote
    4. Tell them that you will kill them and their pet rabbit if they tell anyone
    5. Win the election

    Sadly, that is a problem that will always exist if people aren't voting in a private cubicle in a public place.

    After the recent postal voting in the UK, it was found that many heads of families coerced the rest of the family into voting a certain way. That just can't happen in a private cubicle where you can always lie to dad later, but vote for who you want to now.

  79. bots by fuliginous · · Score: 1

    Then soon after that is allowed they will be downloading a bot to their machines that automatically votes for them. Lazy beeps!

  80. Re:There is a good reason to retain the voting boo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there's no protection of anonymity?

  81. Why don't they just bet on it ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think this would work best in the UK: just bet on which of the two parties wins the election, no nasty voting anymore, just going to your local betting office and placing a bet.

    "But yes sir, labour is 3:300000 today, you could win a lot of money if they would win !"

    Great stuff, no democracy, typically british !

  82. sales pitch by backwardMechanic · · Score: 1

    Broadband supplier (or should I say seller) shows we all want to vote online. This tells us:
    (a) we all want to vote online, or
    (b) NTL have found a new sales pitch
    Place your votes now.

  83. Making voting mandatory... by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    ... is against the spirit of true democracy.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  84. What a load of nonsense. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Vote is secret in any half assed democracy in order to avoid any kind of cohercion.

    Take away secrecy and you would see all kind of external pressure (family, friends, unions, companies, the state, the police, religious organizations) applied to people to ensure they vote the correct way.

    Honestly, why don't you think before writting?

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  85. Sorry, you are not naive. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    You are monumentally politically incompetent.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  86. You heard it here first, folks by kalirion · · Score: 1

    I am officially calling the next Prime Minister election for Stephen Colbert.

  87. Slashdot Has Had E-Voting for Years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tell me when this change takes effect in the UK. I look forward to hearing about M.P. CowboyNeal.

  88. Digg? by NEOtaku17 · · Score: 1

    Will online voting mean we will get leaders that believe that 9/11 was an inside job and Microsoft should be destroyed?

  89. Danger. Don't do it. by DriveDog · · Score: 1

    Voting anywhere but a carefully observed polling place is bad news. It would be all too easy to sell votes if someone could look over your shoulder or receive a print-screen of your picks. Currently it is (assumed to be) difficult for anyone to verify for whom someone voted, therefore anyone selling votes can easily lie. No one will buy many votes when they can't be sure of what they're buying. Online voting: Bad.

  90. I doubt that the time for online voting has arrive by mscsrrr · · Score: 1

    I doubt that the time for online voting has arrived because it is very vulnerable to fraud because any hacker can hack into the system and manipulate the voter result. Mscsrrr, http://www.maychic.com/cbag/bad_credit_loans.htm