[EM] Why We Shouldn't Count Votes with Machines
Jonathan Lundell
jlundell at pobox.com
Sat Aug 16 07:27:10 PDT 2008
On Aug 16, 2008, at 12:54 AM, Kristofer Munsterhjelm wrote:
>> I am for a record on disk of each ballot, but done in a maner
>> to not destroy secrecy.
>
> You have to be very careful when doing so, because there are many
> channels to secure. A vote-buyer might tell you to vote exactly at
> noon so that the disk record timestamp identifies you, or he might,
> in the case of Approval and ranked ballots, tell you to vote for not
> just his preferred candidate, but both the low-support communist and
> the low-support right extremist as well, so that he can tell which
> ballot was yours and that you voted correctly.
In the US, at least, voting by mail has become so prevalent that I
wonder whether it's worthwhile making voting machinery absolutely
impregnable to vote-buying. All else being equal, sure, why not, but
if we trade off other desirable properties to preserve secrecy, and
leave the vote-by-mail door unlocked....
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