Electronic voting fraud.

[GostHacked]

I've been watching these guys for some time and they have a great way of explaining technology. This time they talked about electronic voting and the fraud that can take place with it. There is a reason I don't trust it.

[Moonlight Graham]

I totally agree with him. There are many problems with electronic voting and online voting. At the end of the day, I like having a paper trail, and as it stands it's harder to rig paper ballot elections than electronic/online ballots given the far fewer variables involved with paper ballots.

[Bryan]

I have trouble reconciling the two opposing concepts of anonymity and ensuring that your vote is counted accurately. It just seems to me that to be really secure, there needs to be a way to do a forensic recount that can verify if all of the ballots being counted were real. You should actually be able to check that your ballot was counted the way you intended.

I think this really bring home why ID is the most important thing when it comes to voting. If everyone had a chip and pin encrypted ID card that was required for voting, and that logging in like that generated your unique paper ballot, that was in turn BOTH electronically calculated by a scanner when you drop it in the box (to give immediate results), AND physically counted to verify that initial count.

[GostHacked]

I have trouble reconciling the two opposing concepts of anonymity and ensuring that your vote is counted accurately. It just seems to me that to be really secure, there needs to be a way to do a forensic recount that can verify if all of the ballots being counted were real. You should actually be able to check that your ballot was counted the way you intended.

I think this really bring home why ID is the most important thing when it comes to voting. If everyone had a chip and pin encrypted ID card that was required for voting, and that logging in like that generated your unique paper ballot, that was in turn BOTH electronically calculated by a scanner when you drop it in the box (to give immediate results), AND physically counted to verify that initial count.

But how do you guarantee the fraud does not take place after you vote? It's not like you get a receipt saying you votes for Person X and not Person Y.

[Michael Hardner]

This is well done. Thanks for posting it.

I also feel the same way about changing the representation system... The only thing I'd like to see change is modes of engagement by the government.

[Topaz]

Has anyone voted online for their municipality or city yet? Many people had problems and ended up voting at the polls. I tried too and what was happening was you had to send them your e-mail address in and in return they would allow you to vote , this was done so you only voted once. My trouble I couldn't get their e-mail back and so did many others. It was a farce, even though the local gov't said everything was okay to go and no one should have any problem. Of course, at the polls, after voting, they enter our voting card into a machine so it could be counted.

[Bryan]

But how do you guarantee the fraud does not take place after you vote? It's not like you get a receipt saying you votes for Person X and not Person Y.

That's what I'm talking about, I think that the ballot should be trackable in some way. They have numbers on them, and they get assigned to you by the elections official once they cross reference your name. Whether they admit it or not, they COULD track which ballot belongs to what voter if they wanted to. If you had a chip and pin system that assigns the ballot to you, you could use your pin to verify your ballot at a later date if necessary.

[GostHacked]

That's what I'm talking about, I think that the ballot should be trackable in some way. They have numbers on them, and they get assigned to you by the elections official once they cross reference your name. Whether they admit it or not, they COULD track which ballot belongs to what voter if they wanted to. If you had a chip and pin system that assigns the ballot to you, you could use your pin to verify your ballot at a later date if necessary.

Then that takes away the anonymity of your vote. One of the key factors of a democracy (or so I am told) There still can be fraud in paper ballots (2004 US election), and it came down to a judge's decision instead of letting the votes count.

I guess either way I don't trust the system enough that the election system is self correcting and un-partisan.

It is still easier to change your vote at any stage along the way with an electronic vote than it is to change a paper ballot. Even the print out of your receipt will say A when you voted B. How do you contest that?