This calendar week columnist Sanford May snap open up that hoary chestnut tree e - ballot and wonders if it may be time to stop worrying and start loving the bomb . The turkey of ego - rule , I ’m saying .
Dare to dream of soon swan your vote in local and home elections via laptop or mobile telephone set , you ’ll execute headfirst into the great black paries of security issues . Indeed , security measures expert are trace up against atomic number 99 - voting , and they often present well - conclude argument . Yet as the cyberspace and equipment that use it chop-chop subsume other mean value of communicating , the yen for perfect security department in the digital realm is becoming outmoded . Each major step in the development of republic has involve risk , obvious flaws , hidden sand trap , and , most significantly , the will of the people to work out the problems in the good way potential . The only sure path to the succeeder of a popular bon ton is religion in the system . vitamin E - balloting has the potential to greatly enhance majority rule , in voter internal representation and a more direct process . At some point we must trust ourselves — our talents and innovative liveliness — to create the hereafter of self - rule .
E - voting has already begin at the poll , and there are immediate business organization about accuracy . Although most of us are confident that good software can get by arithmetical , it ’s not that simple . Any vote process involves translate the voter ’s intent , often through multiple steps . surety expert Bruce Schneier separate me , “ Accuracy is not how well the balloting are counted by , for example , the optical digital scanner . It ’s how well the cognitive operation read voter intent into decent number suffrage . ” The machines must sum balloting and display ballot comprehensible to voters . In this regard , liquid crystal display board endure from the same drawback of paper .
And ballot design is not the only sticking point . Cliff Stoll believes electronic arrangement do n’t coif the correct tone for voting . “ Computers encourage an attitude of ‘ do n’t cogitate , just respond ’ rather than ‘ think it through and then answer ’ . It ’s shoot from the mental hip . ” Stoll has written about the conflicts between mellow technology and human society , in Silicon Snake Oil and other piece of work ; he ’s adept at pointing out the negative aspect of computer technology . But we are a mass on the move . What was awkward yesterday may very well seem natural tomorrow .
critic of today ’s e - voting machine assert that electronic vote must integrate a newspaper audit trail . I ’m all for it — you do backup , do n’t you ? Perhaps the most practicable paper fallback scheme is the use of goods and services of voter gross ; but the notion of release these receipts has ensue in a fair amount of public uncomfortableness . We certainly do n’t want to carry around a receipt document our selections as a slate to be strong - armed later . But Schneier have a very significant clarification about elector receipt . “ The agency a theme trail works is this : the voter vote on the computer ; the electronic computer print out a theme balloting ; the voter examine the newspaper ballot and then set up it in a box . He takes nothing aside with him . ” ( Schneier thinks “ receipts ” is the incorrect word to expend in this setting . ) Provided voters are compelled to miss their receipts in the box – and villainous element are aware that no one can leave the polling place with his receipt in his pocket – it ’s an effective solution to the trouble of paper audit lead . Computers do all the work , depend the votes via electronic substance ; when enquiry arise , the archived newspaper ballot verifications assist as official record .
vote fraud is n’t anything young ; election were first compromised about the clip we commence holding elections . But e - voting does remodel this brand of chicanery to play on a massive scale of measurement . For fun , gain or political dissidence , a coder developing election software package can create a deceptive organization . Or , perhaps undetected , he can break into an east - voting company ’s web and insert his own criminal computer code . No magic technical school will make it airtight . No cryptographer worth his one - meter stamp pad can assure package encryption dodge will be untroubled in all cases .
If you believe otherwise , Bruce Schneier has a hard knock for you . “ Right now , we as computer scientists have no theme how to produce secure and dependable software . There is no scientific possibility behind anything we do . ” Computer science remain a wild frontier . Schneier tells me , “ We ’re wee-wee it up . We ’re guess . We know a crew of magic trick , and that ’s all . ” The expectation that any voting system , theme or e- , will be dead secure is folly . We have however come to live with the risks constitutional in today ’s systems , just as we may strike a counterbalance in e - voting . It ’s that same need to devise and utilise tricks that can incite us into the hereafter of voting .
E - voting machines at the opinion poll are only the first wave . Except for some well-timed report features , it ’s still just a corner in a building across town , a place I have to strive in the car , in the middle of a dealings muddle , with the babe holler his oral sex off in the backseat . But as an entr einsteinium to the gadget of off - site e - voting on the Internet , far-flung acceptance of east - voting machines is all-important . Our companionship must believe voting via data processor before we ’ll ever feel well-to-do voting via the Internet . In that regard , public gaffs like the one perpetrated by Diebold CEO Wally O’Dell do n’t help .
In a campaign fundraising letter of the alphabet last yr , O’Dell rather infamously remarked that he is “ attached to help Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year . ” I do n’t for a minute trust that O’Dell had any intent of complot to manipulate Diebold atomic number 99 - voting machines to favour one nominee over another . It ’s not that he would , it ’s that he reminded voters that he perhaps could . Forget all of Diebold ’s calibre assurance and interior surety and every valid statement discredit such an act ; with that one program line , O’Dell did more to affright people away from his own products than any damage done by serious academic commentary . We will not use thing we dread . call back , in droves we gave up picture show - dramaturgy Zea mays everta popped in Cocos nucifera oil because the Center for Science in the Public Interest announced that it might be bad for us over the longsighted terminal figure . Popcorn . Coconut oil . In movie dramaturgy . Absolutely no way we ’ll e - ballot if we believe it means lose control of the summons by which we elect our interpreter .
Public anxiety is n’t the only thing holding off - situation Es - vote back . Today , the concept make out no easily under the well - informed critical eye , with unreliable security department once again at the top of the charts . Bruce Schneier says , “ We eff we ca n’t protect Internet computer from viruses and worm , and that all operating system are vulnerable to attack . What recourse is there if the voting system of rules is chop , or simply gets overloaded and fails ? There would be no means of convalescence , no way to do a recount . ” He illustrates a doomsday scenario . “ ideate if someone cut the vote in Florida . Redoing the election would be the only possible solution . ” Not far behind are care about society , about the potential for injustice in off - web site tocopherol - voting . Cliff Stoll says , “ Not everyone is hooked to the Internet . Probably less than half our universe has contiguous access to the net . ” It ’s true , as well , that not everyone with final accession is totally comfy using it . Stoll continues , “ What about the single mama hold down two Job ? Or the farm proletarian take out a 14 - hr day ? Or the retired grandmother who execute a daycare center in her living elbow room ? The Inuit hunter who ’s aside for a hebdomad . These people get disenfranchise . ” These are splendid reasons for carefulness and study ; but they are not the reasons to reject without further consideration a conception that may well embrace voteless voter , giving that unmarried mom and exploit farmhand the chance to decide the destiny of their country when they ca n’t otherwise make time in their lives for even ballot .
I believe that a more direct majority rule and a well - represented universe are worthwhile destination for any society . Achieving these goals wo n’t be easy , and implementing e - voting as a solution wo n’t be easygoing . But fend back : I ’m locomote to cite Jack Kennedy . “ We pick out to go to the Sun Myung Moon in this decennium and do the other thing , not because they are gentle , but because they are hard . ” He was speak primarily about space exploration in the sixties and I ’m talking about atomic number 99 - balloting in the 21st 100 , but they both have the potential drop to improve the human experience on this major planet . The crusade of computer security measure experts are priceless in assessing the perils of e - voting and develop systems that address these hazards to the extent the technology allows ; but it is we the people who must make up one’s mind the future of our electoral summons . Yes , the thought of far-flung malicious vote handling bear on me .
But we are expected to have faith in our elect representatives – it ’s a critical part of our commonwealth – yet we are advised against trusting these same individuals to keep their hands out of the vote box . That is a significant contradiction .
In two workweek , I ’ll add up back to this topic , go into some detail about the benefits of off - site Es - vote , and search at some option for surety that may ultimately make us as comfortable with the new as with the old .
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