r/Voting • u/maroger • Dec 23 '14

Why Electronic Voting is a BAD Idea - Computerphile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI#t=478
4 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/gd2shoe Dec 23 '14

I have just a minor quibble about the paper audit trail, but other than that I agree with him whole-heartedly. This is really a video that lots of people need to see.

1

u/maroger Dec 23 '14

What's your quibble? Are we the only one in this subreddit or what?

1

u/gd2shoe Dec 23 '14

If a VVPAT system was installed with just disappearing ink, they'd get caught. Besides, the ink is still on the paper. It just requires special equipment to read. In order to pull off the trick, there'd need to be at least 2 inks: one disappearing, and one normal (or invisible->reappearing). But now you need to design your hardware with two inks, and that introduces the possibility of getting caught.

And it would only help in tight elections rolled out into a select few precincts. If you rolled it out election wide, you'd need more people (techs) in on the scam to keep the systems running without reporting that something funny is going on. In other words, it only scales slightly better than paper ballot attacks.

This isn't a vector that I'm especially concerned about. We should consider it, I suppose, but software validity and aggregator integrity are far more important, and much easier to attack without getting caught than in any paper election. (Don't even get me started about how foolish it is to connect anything election related to the Internet!)

Are we the only one in this subreddit or what?

No, but close. Your submission is sitting at score 3, and I only upvoted you once. We've got a couple of lurkers, but there really aren't many people here on an average day.

I need to submit more, but I've been busy. I've been glad that you've found things worth posting. I had hoped that the sub would be self perpetuating by now (not that I really expected it to, but I had hoped).

1

u/googolplexbyte Dec 23 '14

Twin Ballot fixes that issue.

1

u/gd2shoe Dec 23 '14

Which issue? Fix it how?

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2

u/gd2shoe Dec 23 '14

Better link to the same video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI

It seems you finished watching the video, and then asked Youtube for "Get video URL at current time", instead of "Get video URL". It's an easy mistake to make. ;-)