Linked by snydeq on Mon 27th Oct 2008 17:24 UTC
The mounting irregularities of closed-source proprietary e-voting systems clearly show the need for a new approach to securing elections in the U.S. -- one centered on the use of open source technologies, writes Paul Venezia. 'It's time for us to make good on the promise of open elections and open our e-voting systems as well,' Venezia writes, outlining the technical blueprint for a cheap, secure, open source e-voting system. The call for open voting systems has grown louder as of late, with several projects, such as Pvote and the Open Voting Consortium, demonstrating how the voting booth could benefit from open source code. Such systems are already securing elections in Australia and Brazil.
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Member since:
2006-01-16
I was just about to post nearly the same.
On the other hand, I think we should not miss out on new opportunities to use modern technology when it is available for improvements.
*Possible* improvements in the area of voting are clearly visible:
- No counting errors
- No unintentionally voided votes (system guarantees to cast the vote to the voter)
- Better usability possible to voters, faster voting process
- Much less human work needed
- Counting is done while voting, so no explicit counting stage necessary (think about U.S. election 2000, where it was ruled to _not_ re-count votes)
- Overall more cost-effictive
The question is: Is it possible to find an electronic voting system that can compete with pen&paper on the security level?
This question is IMHO not answered yet. Until it is answered, electronic voting systems should not be used. But also, one should wait for research instead of completely abandoning the idea.
About understandability: Think about a system where all votes are publicly printed in the voting room. After finishing a vote, one gets an anonymous id printed which is also found on the vote printout. Every voter can anonymously check if her vote was really cast. Vote helpers can check if the printout maches the system's database. This is just one simple idea to improve understandability compared to what is used today (I don't know why the current systems do best in avoiding understandability!).
Edited 2008-10-27 19:58 UTC