First of all I think E-Voting is a great idea, if it is implemented correctly. As much as I am a fan of open source this is one area where the benefits of closed source, making it that much harder for hackers to circumvent our voting process, out weighs the benefits from open source. As the system stands now the companies in charge of the voting machines have CONTROLE to change votes or misplace them with no accountability. This whole mess of a system could be fixed with a few modifications.
Each registered voter is assigned a random ID*, and is sent a letter to remind him to vote including his ID. This list of ID would be only available to the government agency in charge of voting. It could also be obtained at their registered place of voting if lost or forgotten.
Every voting machine would be given a list of random numbers from a central server. No number must be given to any two machines. The Machines would assign each vote one numbers as an ID. After a person is done voting he is given two paper receipts containing his ID, the serial number of the machine used, and a list of each vote made and corresponding ID. They would be required to read the receipt and confirm that it is correct before they turn one copy in and go home with the second. The machine would also store an electronic copy. If a machine malfunctions and the electronic copy is lost there is still a paper trail and the vote would not be lost.
After the poles close, a list of all votes and corresponding ID would be made available to the general public from a government website, or for a small fee a CD. Anyone could look at the list and tally up the results themselves if they wanted to. Additionally people could give a copy of their receipt to any organization to collect a database of votes making sure that people aren't given the same ID for any vote. People who don't vote could reply to the government agency in charge and inform them that they did not vote in the election. This way there wouldn't be any 'extra' votes.
I can see a few holes in this method, but is appears to be a whole lot better than our current, and all proposed systems that I have heard of. Here are a few that I can think of.
-*The assignment of an ID to each person isn't required. It would be more secure, but it could be possible for government insiders in charge of the systems to know how you voted.
-If there are lots of dogs cats and dead people still registered to vote, this system would not do much to stop someone from taking advantage of it.
-The whole idea of assigning an ID to a vote, and making the list available to the public, only works if people check to make sure their vote was counted correctly.
-Hosting a large list for public use could be difficult. ( government use of BitTorrent?) -People misreading their receipt or messing up while voting crying foul when it was their own fault, and no error or cheating was involved.
If you can think of anymore please feel free to add them.
Slashdot Mirror
First of all I think E-Voting is a great idea, if it is implemented correctly. As much as I am a fan of open source this is one area where the benefits of closed source, making it that much harder for hackers to circumvent our voting process, out weighs the benefits from open source. As the system stands now the companies in charge of the voting machines have CONTROLE to change votes or misplace them with no accountability. This whole mess of a system could be fixed with a few modifications.
Each registered voter is assigned a random ID*, and is sent a letter to remind him to vote including his ID. This list of ID would be only available to the government agency in charge of voting. It could also be obtained at their registered place of voting if lost or forgotten.
Every voting machine would be given a list of random numbers from a central server. No number must be given to any two machines. The Machines would assign each vote one numbers as an ID. After a person is done voting he is given two paper receipts containing his ID, the serial number of the machine used, and a list of each vote made and corresponding ID. They would be required to read the receipt and confirm that it is correct before they turn one copy in and go home with the second. The machine would also store an electronic copy. If a machine malfunctions and the electronic copy is lost there is still a paper trail and the vote would not be lost.
After the poles close, a list of all votes and corresponding ID would be made available to the general public from a government website, or for a small fee a CD. Anyone could look at the list and tally up the results themselves if they wanted to. Additionally people could give a copy of their receipt to any organization to collect a database of votes making sure that people aren't given the same ID for any vote. People who don't vote could reply to the government agency in charge and inform them that they did not vote in the election. This way there wouldn't be any 'extra' votes.
I can see a few holes in this method, but is appears to be a whole lot better than our current, and all proposed systems that I have heard of. Here are a few that I can think of.
-*The assignment of an ID to each person isn't required. It would be more secure, but it could be possible for government insiders in charge of the systems to know how you voted.
-If there are lots of dogs cats and dead people still registered to vote, this system would not do much to stop someone from taking advantage of it.
-The whole idea of assigning an ID to a vote, and making the list available to the public, only works if people check to make sure their vote was counted correctly.
-Hosting a large list for public use could be difficult. ( government use of BitTorrent?)
-People misreading their receipt or messing up while voting crying foul when it was their own fault, and no error or cheating was involved.
If you can think of anymore please feel free to add them.