E-Voting: A Security Headache

There clearly needs to be a viable infrastructure, Usman.  I think the evolution should align with the infrastructure and the widespread use of the internet; which would make training an easy addition.

I also think, as pointed out, that there should always be an accessible viable alternative, i.e. paper or phone, for universal access.

DHagar

E-voting is still a little far off in my opinion, for instance if a web based solution is decided upon, apart from the snags disucssed here in the article, the web design would have to spot on, because in such a crtical application user efficiency in paramount. In addition, people would have to trained beforehand to insure that at the time of voting they aren't confused and the whole affair isn't turned upside down. These are just few kinks that'd need to be straightened out, in one possible approach, I'd imagine similar concerns to span over other avenues as well.

I agree, kiranIE.  Clearly the technology is there to build a secure system; if we can manage our financial transactions that way, certainly we can handle effective voting - even for Florida.

I like Kim's vision and believe that our current system is not only inefficient, but much more vulnerable to security/identify and accuracy issues, as we have learned.

Technology would both improve the process and provide a much stronger audit trail; which could build greater confidence in the system.

For equal access, you probably will have to have another data entry point, i.e., phones (that can be translated into data), etc.

DHagar

E-voting must and should be adopted, even though with the drawbacks. In terms of security, government regulations must ensure that all the polling stations are open source and ensure anti-fraud systems. We see concrete examples of frauds been encountered manually, we need a change, a change in-terms of electronic mediums due to the huge technological shifts as compared to the last few years. 

@Kim yes, that's a good question!

Good point, Ariella.  Somewhat less pressure there (in an electoral sense) because of the general assumption about the way NJ would vote.  Can it work in Florida is the question!

@Kim Yes, I wonder if anyone will look at how it worked for NJ, which allowed voters displaced by Sandy to vote via fax and online. 

Ariella, where he's absolutely right is that e-Voting can't be introduced, only for it not to work.  It would have to be thoroughly tested. 

The New York Times ran a piece on this on the 11th. It included this; 

Ronald L. Rivest, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that for now, the best technology out there is the one we've been using.

"Winston Churchill had a famous saying that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried before," Mr. Rivest said. "You can apply the same statement to paper ballots, which are the worst form of voting, but better than all the others that have been tried before."

Mr. Rivest, who is the R in the name of the RSA encryption system, which is used by government institutions and banks, said that if things went wrong on Election Day, chaos could ensue, because doubts about the results would rattle the foundations of our democracy.

"One of the main goals of the election is to produce credible evidence to the loser that he's really lost," he said. "When you have complicated technology, you really do have to worry about election fraud."

So what's the solution? Ms. Simons and Mr. Rivest both seemed certain that the best alternative was to stick with a technology that's a couple of thousand years old. "Paper," they both said, as if reading from the same script. "Paper ballots."