[EM] 3ballot - revolutionary new protocol for secure secret ballot elections

[Abd ul-Rahman Lomax]

At 08:49 PM 10/1/2006, Ka-Ping Yee wrote:
>I'm talking about "marking the ballot" by filling in bubbles, not
>by scribbling on it.  There may be enough down-ballot contests in
>many elections (at least in the U. S.) that the vote-buyer could
>instruct a voter to create a distinct pattern of filled bubbles in
>down-ballot contests.

(1) complex. people who sell their votes are ... not the brightest 
bulbs in the pack. After all, the vote buyers obviously believe that 
the votes are worth more than they are paying! (enough more to be 
worth the legal risk). Vote-buying may shift close elections; but, 
frankly, I think it is rare. Very rare. Except of course, for the 
most blatant vote-buying of all: "Vote for me, I'll cut your taxes." 
or the alternate: "Vote for me, I'll increase social benefits." Or, 
of course, both at the same time, which seems to be what most 
politicians aim at.

(2) not all that easy. Yes, a vote-buyer could design some 
distinctive pattern, or even a few of them. But this would allow the 
buyer to only validate a few votes. Presumably the buyer is buying 
more than a few votes. So how does the buyer know which votes came 
from the seller? Designing a pattern that can be varied sufficiently 
to identify a large number of voters would take a *lot* of 
contests.... And, of course, unless the vote-buyer were only 
interested in a single contest, all that variation would have 
undesired results.