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University Developing Technology To Vote On Your Tablet, Smartphone

Posted by samzenpus on from the rock-the-vote-from-home dept.

smitty_one_each writes in with this story about a professor developing a new electronic voting system. "A Clemson University professor is developing a new electronic voting system that will allow voters to cast their ballots from home computers, tablets and smartphones. As Clemson's chair of human-centered computing, Juan Gilbert has lead teams of students over the last 10 years to create an online voting system accessible at home or on the go that will be more accurate, have increased verification and make voting more accessible to people with disabilities by offering mobile and voice-command options."

4 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. So now... by MouseTheLuckyDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    hackers will not only steal my identity, they will steal my vote.

    1. Re:So now... by mi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The only way to do so is buy the human.

      You can also bully or otherwise coerce the same human, which is what the anonymity was meant to prevent.

      The "fix" is simpler, easier, and cheaper than today's voting system, and would fix most of what's wrong with it.

      So, your proposal is to abolish the voting anonymity... Interesting, but I'm not sure, I like that.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    2. Re:So now... by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Trust is actually the big issue with electronic voting, no matter the form it takes. Not that it was untrustworthy (it is, but that's not even the point). The point is that you HAVE to trust it unless you're one of the few that can actually audit it (even if you were allowed to).

      With pen&paper voting, all it takes to verify and audit an election is the ability to see where that voter made his X and to count the paper slips. That's an ability one can sensibly expect from any human being of average intelligence. Hell, even the average US voter should be able to accomplish that. Same for being part of the supervision collective to ensure that everything is in order. You can see that ballot and how it is glued shut, you can see how people deposit one slip of paper in it, that's plenty to ensure that everything is going according to plan and order.

      No such luck with any kind of electronic voting. Not with the currently in place e-voting booths, and most certainly not with online voting where you have exactly ZERO chance to audit anything. What's left is that you can trust the powers that are that everything is in order. You, Mr. Joe Average, cannot verify it. You cannot verify that the machine works as planned (even if you were allowed to examine its code, you could not understand it), so at the very least you'd have to trust those computer nerds.

      The big threat is here that it is no longer trivial to debunk voting fraud conspiracies. Today you can just dump the slips on whoever dares to call you a fraudster and have him count. What do you plan to do when someone calls your voting machines and online voting procedure into doubt? Then all that keeps your system afloat is that people trust you. If they don't, wave good bye to your system's stability because a system where people do not believe in its legitimation is waiting for a revolution.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Re:When I tried something similar by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    politics could be different with an educated voter base.

    We have an educated voter base.
    The problem is that their education is crap.

    What you want is an informed voter base.
    Preferably one that is informed with factual information and not "because Ayn Rand said so."

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!