Internet Voting in Canadian Federal Elections

[PIK]

Trudeau is setting himself up to be PM for life with the new voting system and this. This will only help him, that the pot heads can vote without leaving their parents house and the same with young girls with a crush on him. And he does not have a mandate (39% of the vote) to have such a drastic change to the system.

[TimG]

But the whole point of going electronic is to make it easier and increase the number of voters. This will do neither.

Which is why I say internet voting is waste of time and money. The trouble is too many people think voting for a government should be like voting for 'Canadian Idol' and, as a result, have completely unrealistic expectations for how a secure system would have to operate. Edited May 16, 2016 by TimG

[Moonlight Graham]

The thing with internet voting is it's a lot different than banking, or even filing taxes online. With voting, it needs to work on that 1 day in that moment when each person tries to vote. With banking you can tweak the software, fix bugs, and do trouble-shooting. With voting you can do all the bug testing you want but you can never prepare prior for millions of people going onto a system on the same day. It better work 100% or the voting system collapses.

We saw the statistics canada page go down recently because of people going online to do their census. The Obamacare website went down when it was introduced. That can't happen.

[WestCoastRunner]

Good grief. What a bunch of paranoid folks. Wake up to 2016!

[bush_cheney2004]

...The Obamacare website went down when it was introduced. That can't happen.

Not applicable to voting in Canada...there is no requirement for 100% up time for ACA health care exchanges in the United States.

[WestCoastRunner]

The obamacare website went down because of poor project planning. Lessons can be learned.

[TimG]

Good grief. What a bunch of paranoid folks. Wake up to 2016!

Yes it is 2016:

Hackers Steal $101M From Central Bank

http://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2016/how-hackers-stole-101m-from-a-new-york-fed-account/

The IRS Says Identity Thieves Hacked Its Systems Again

http://fortune.com/2016/02/10/irs-hack-refunds/

Hackers steal millions from UK bank accounts using banking Trojan

http://business-reporter.co.uk/2015/10/14/hackers-steal-millions-from-uk-bank-accounts-using-banking-trojan/#sthash.3wn3dOqr.dpuf

Paper ballots are tried and true tech. There is no justification for internet voting given the potential risks.

Edited May 17, 2016 by TimG

[bush_cheney2004]

The obamacare website went down because of poor project planning. Lessons can be learned.

Not completely true....and not applicable to internet voting in Canada. CGI Federal, part of CGI Group Canada, was one of several incompetent contractors not renewed for the project/program. See how I got this back to Canada ?

Edited May 17, 2016 by bush_cheney2004

[WestCoastRunner]

Yes it is 2016:

http://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2016/how-hackers-stole-101m-from-a-new-york-fed-account/

http://fortune.com/2016/02/10/irs-hack-refunds/

http://business-reporter.co.uk/2015/10/14/hackers-steal-millions-from-uk-bank-accounts-using-banking-trojan/#sthash.3wn3dOqr.dpuf

Paper ballots are tried and true tech. There is no justification for internet voting given the potential risks.

We are talking about voting. No financial transactions take place. What would be the worst case scenario?

[TimG]

We are talking about voting. No financial transactions take place. What would be the worst case scenario?

An election stolen by hackers who want the vote to go a certain way? The consequences are just as severe.

That said, we could design a system that would be fairly secure as I described above but the authentication process has to involve snail mail and that will make it easier for most people to simply go to the polls.

Edited May 17, 2016 by TimG

[WestCoastRunner]

An election stolen by hackers who want the vote to go a certain way? The consequences are just as severe.

That said, we could design a system that would be fairly secure as I described above but the authentication process has to involve snail mail and that will make it easier for most people to simply go to the polls.

It won't make it easier if they seniors or single parents with not much time on their hands or other busy folks. Seriously, this is a no brainer that is going to happen. It's just a matter of when.

[TimG]

It won't make it easier if they seniors or single parents with not much time on their hands or other busy folks. Seriously, this is a no brainer that is going to happen. It's just a matter of when.

It will happen when people can make a case for it that is more substantial than 'we want to pander to lazy people'.

[WestCoastRunner]

It will happen when people can make a case for it that is more substantial than 'we want to pander to lazy people'.

Well, lazy people is your judgement. It doesn't make it true.

[WestCoastRunner]

Not completely true....and not applicable to internet voting in Canada. CGI Federal, part of CGI Group Canada, was one of several incompetent contractors not renewed for the project/program. See how I got this back to Canada ?

Ok.

[Smallc]

It won't make it easier if they seniors or single parents with not much time on their hands or other busy folks.

That's why we have mail in ballots.

[WestCoastRunner]

That's why we have mail in ballots.

It's still easier to login and vote.

[TimG]

It's still easier to login and vote.

Which is why internet voting is only for lazy people.

[WestCoastRunner]

Which is why internet voting is only for lazy people.

Do you do online banking, online research instead of heading down to the library?

[Smallc]

Do you do online banking, online research instead of heading down to the library?

Online banking can't generally be set up without some kind of interaction with a real person.

[bush_cheney2004]

Online banking can't generally be set up without some kind of interaction with a real person.

Not according to this RBC online banking sign up page:

https://www1.royalbank.com/cgi-bin/rbaccess/rbunxcgi?F6=1&F7=IB&F21=IB&F22=HT&REQUEST=IBOnlineEnrollLink&LANGUAGE=ENGLISH&SPAGE=onlinenav1e

Online banking is not very secure unless it uses real time authentication.

[WestCoastRunner]

Online voting is coming. Brace yourselves.

[TimG]

Do you do online banking, online research instead of heading down to the library?

Research is an anonymous activity that does not require the provider to know who I am. Banking is an activity that I do daily and I am personally liable for the consequences if my online account is hacked. That ensures that I remember my credentials and take care to protect them and keep my banking information up to date.

[TimG]

Online voting is coming. Brace yourselves.

The collapse of the CAGW scam is coming. Brace yourselves.

[WestCoastRunner]

The collapse of the CAGW scam is coming. Brace yourselves.

Quivering in my boots.

[Big Guy]

The thing with internet voting is it's a lot different than banking, or even filing taxes online. With voting, it needs to work on that 1 day in that moment when each person tries to vote. With banking you can tweak the software, fix bugs, and do trouble-shooting. With voting you can do all the bug testing you want but you can never prepare prior for millions of people going onto a system on the same day. It better work 100% or the voting system collapses.

We saw the statistics canada page go down recently because of people going online to do their census. The Obamacare website went down when it was introduced. That can't happen.

The only reason there is such a thing as "election day" is because IT IS THE LAST DAY TO VOTE and it is financially easier to set up a whole bunch of locations for that day.

You are allowed to vote the day after the writ is dropped. About 20% of the population votes in advance polls because they don't feel like voting on the last day and would prefer to do it when it is a nice day.

Internet voting would allow anyone to vote at any time during the time between when the writ is dropped (the campaign starts) and the last day to vote - election day. If you use the last election as an example, the writ was dropped on Aug 2 and the last day was Oct 19. Everyone had about 100 days to vote.