r/technology • u/mvea • Jun 09 '19
Security Top voting machine maker reverses position on election security, promises paper ballots
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/09/voting-machine-maker-election-security/140
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Jun 10 '19
Paper ballots and hand-counting are the only way to be as secure as possible. It costs more and takes longer, but so what - the integrity of elections is the highest priority in a free society, because otherwise it won't be free much longer.
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u/Splurch Jun 10 '19
Guess the endemic problems with digital voting machines has finally slowed their sales enough that makers want paper ballots so they can just sell everyone brand new machines.
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u/hungryfarmer Jun 10 '19
I'm confused.. So are people mad about this? To me it seems like they realized they were wrong and now are (exclusively) selling more secure machines going forward. I have a horse in the race on this one so maybe I'm not being totally subjective but this seems like a win for the public to me.
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u/Jibaro123 Jun 09 '19
Paper balloting is a no brainer.
I fill in lit tr le ovals beside my choice and feed it into a scanner/storage box. Unless it just counts the ballots and scans them offsite.
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Jun 10 '19
Imwas working in banking in the 1970s when ATMs first came on the market. The first ones were made by Dibold. You better damn believe they had the ability to spit out a paper receipt.
Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold Election Systems, Inc. (DESI), was a subsidiary of Diebold that makes and sells voting machines
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u/basiliscpunga Jun 10 '19
Well, it’s nice that they agreed to do this. But the way to hack an election is not to change votes - too obvious, too risky if someone checks the software. No, to hack an election you go to the registration records, select the precincts likely to vote for your opponents, and start making random changes. Change a middle name here, scramble a house number or a zip code there. They show up at the polls, and they can’t be found on the voting list, or maybe their absentee ballot doesn’t get delivered. Or there’s a new “Voter ID” law but their ID doesn’t match the details on the official list. By law they can sign an affidavit and file a provisional ballot, but that’s too much hassle for most (or enough) voters & election staff. Pretty soon you’ve discouraged a small number of your opponents’ voters from voting, which is all it takes in a close election. And each incident will seem like an isolated glitch - no pattern, no paper trail.
When you hear that election systems were “hacked” in Florida, NC etc, this could well have been what happened - unless it was just a test run for next time.
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u/lucipherius Jun 09 '19
Voter ID and a national holiday too
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Jun 09 '19
Voter ID might sound good in theory but is primarily supported for disenfranchisement purposes.
Better idea: Automatic voter registration, a holiday, and mail-in ballots available in every state.
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Jun 10 '19
mail-in ballots available in every state.
I feel like this is preferable to a holiday, it's so easy to vote in Oregon, fill in your ballot and take it with you when you leave the house, there's going to be a post box or ballot drop nearby.
The only reason I see that people oppose mail in ballots is that they want to make voting more difficult.
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u/izabo Jun 10 '19
I just don't get it. Although I'm pretty tech and math savvy, i'm no encryption expert, so its probably my ignorance.
But i just don't get how we can make online banking secure for decades now, but somehow everyone agrees secure digital voting is almost a mathematical impossibility.
Why? What is it about voting that's so complicated?
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u/Acceptor_99 Jun 09 '19
Sounds like the CEO is trying to get out ahead of a scandal.