[EM] Idea for a free web service for (relatively) secure online voting

[Mike Frank]

That is a good point, although may I point out that it is similarly
improbable that the vote-buyer will successfully influence the election
outcome by buying only my one vote.  To have a good chance of influencing
the outcome, he has to buy a lot of votes.  This increases the chance he
will get caught, as well as the cost; mightn't it be more cost-effective
just to take out a really misleading television ad?

But anyway, if vote buying is really a big concern to people:  I have now
successfully redesigned my system in such a way that the certificates by
themselves *cannot* be used to prove to another party how you actually voted
(this is done in a way similar to Rivest-Smith's VAV), so having my system
provide a certificate does not facilitate vote-buying at all, but it does
still catch any substantial fraud in the counting.

But, I might point out though that, even if the system itself doesn't do
anything to help the voter prove how they actually voted, it may still be
logistically difficult to prevent the voter from sneaking a cellphone
camera, for example, into the voting booth, and taking a picture of their
ballot screens (or bubble sheets, or whatever kind of ballot is used) to
show to the vote-buyer.  If the voter takes enough pictures, or continuous
video, it seems to me that he can probably manage to prove how he voted no
matter how the balloting system works.  (OK, maybe not if you have to vote
by feel, say by pulling levers in the dark, but that seems pretty
error-prone.)

Do we need metal detectors at the entrances to the polling places, so people
can't bring in their cellphone cameras?  What if they bring a low-tech
paper-and-plastic disposable camera?  Do we have to pat down the voters like
criminals, or strip-search them, just in case their hidden camera is really
small?  (You can already buy really tiny cameras, they are expensive, but
the vote buyer can buy them and loan them to the voters.)  Basically, what
I'm asking is:  How far is too far to go to try to make vote buying
impossible?

-Mike

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 6:54 PM, Raph Frank <raphfrk at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 4:29 AM, Mike Frank
> <michael.patrick.frank at gmail.com> wrote:
> > And anyway, politicians effectively "buy
> > votes" all the time already, whenever they promise certain classes of
> voters
> > goodies such as tax rebates and the like
>
> Just a note, that is actually different from vote buying in a fundamental
> way.
>
> The problem is that it in your interests to sell your vote even if you
> know that the person is going cost you more than he pays if he is
> elected.
>
> The is because you are certain to be paid, but the probability of your
> vote actually making a difference is tiny.
>
> Gain = payment
> Loss = p*(cost of electing the person)
>
> It would be worth accepting $10 to vote for a candidate who is
> planning to increase you taxes by $100.
>



-- 
Dr. Michael P. Frank, Ph.D. (MIT '99)
820 Hillcrest Ave., Quincy FL  32351-1618
email: michael.patrick.frank at gmail.com
cell: (850) 597-2046, fax/tel: (850) 627-6585
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