[ale] FWD: Voting machines

[Sean Kilpatrick]

Bruno Bronosky wrote:


>The paper ballot "fill in the bubble system" works fine as long as every
piece of paper has a >signed hash and the voter walks away with that hash.
Using a touch screen machine for people >who want/need it works fine, as
long as it prints a paper ballot that the user turns in. There should >be a
very simple (online?) way for anyone with a serial number to verify that
their ballot was >counted**. If you want to "audit" your ballot at any
time, that state ought to be able to produce a >container that your ballot
is known to be in and the totals for that container. It would be possible
>for any GA high school graduate to walk away confident that at least the
container that holds their >ballot contains exactly what the label claims.
The totals and a list of contained hashes would be >available to anyone who
wants them. There would also be a list of who has audited each >container.

Unfortunately this allows for the (small) scale buying of votes.  I want
you to vote for Joe Schmoe.
You come out with your "serial number" and the money man checks that you
voted for Joe Schmoe and then pays you for your vote.  Only works, of
course, for small scale corruption at a single precinct.  Also easy to
spot.  I have seen it attempted with paper ballots when the payoff was a
shot of moonshine.  First bribed voter walks out with a blank ballot. That
ballot is marked and given to the next voter who palms a blank ballot and
puts the marked one in the box.  Fortunately, when the county government is
honest the deputy sheriff soon arrives and the fraud is stopped.

Sean
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