Please explain, in the light of my comments above about the design of voting machines.
If the voting machine contains an accurate electoral roll, records votes correctly and reports on them correctly, what aspect of a voting system within the problem set of the voting method has been missed?
Ballot secrecy is also of absolute importance. It adds at least one order of complexity to the conception of the information system.
Most countries that keep paper ballots don’t vote for everyone from the president on down to the local dog catcher all on the same day. When it’s just the local member of parliament, easy. When it’s a bloody doomsday roll-call, I can see why voting machines were a temptation.
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It is also hazy and illdefined, and outside the scope of a voting machine per se.
For instance, in the UK our ballots are only secret at the point of voting. As each voting slip has a traceable number, after elections MI5 used to record (a) who had voted for the Communist Party and (b) the voting of anybody in whom they had an interest.
It therefore makes no difference whether the ballot is recorded on paper or electronically. What matters is who has access to the information.
Temptation, yes. Necessity, no.
In a properly set up vote, no one. Which is easier to achieve with paper voting. Just don’t put any identifier on voting slips.
Ballot box stuffing*.
(I did at one time go along to meetings of the Electoral Reform Society. They’ve written about this stuff for many years.) Basically voting slips must be identified in some way to prevent stuffing, there must be evidence that there is a one to one correspondence between voting slips and electors, and there must be evidence that every elector got only one voting slip. Now how are you going to achieve that with unidentified voting slips, given that election officials are corruptable?
A really well designed system means that the election supervisors do not have access to either the election slips or the votes cast. It’s hard to do that without a mechanical or electronic system.
*Or as the Protestant slogan went in Northern Ireland, Vote Early and Vote Often.
I don’t see why these would be needed in a properly supervised vote. Seem like shitty solutions to issues that have been solved in better ways by pretty much everyone else. [quote=“Enkita, post:47, topic:102198”]
and there must be evidence that every elector got only one voting slip
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I must be made sure that each voter only gets to cast one vote. The only paper trail really needed for that is a register.
um yeah that’s what is eroding our faith, documents being leaked without authorization.
it just couldn’t be what all these leaks contain/reveal that make us realize that any good faith isn’t warranted when our government does and covers up such heinous bullshit. i’d say he is either stupid or a liar, but with this administration both are a given. ~sighs~
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