Electronic voting is a great system if done correctly. It speeds up tallying, cuts out hanging chads and limits the possibility of ballot stuffing.
Done badly it is going to result in massive fraud or the unrefutable allegation of massive fraud.
A good system should have the following
Open source code running on an applicance. This is the best way to ensure the code is honest and bug free.
A paper trail visible, but not accessable, to the voter so that a hand count can be called if necessary.
Random audit of voter machines to confirm the code running on them is the same as the approved code.
Random audit of paper trail to confirm the electronic tally is correct.
Any system which does not supply these safeguards is either going to be abused or, almost as bad, will not be able to prove that it has not been abused.
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Date: 2004-11-10 03:04 am (UTC)Done badly it is going to result in massive fraud or the unrefutable allegation of massive fraud.
A good system should have the following
Open source code running on an applicance. This is the best way to ensure the code is honest and bug free.
A paper trail visible, but not accessable, to the voter so that a hand count can be called if necessary.
Random audit of voter machines to confirm the code running on them is the same as the approved code.
Random audit of paper trail to confirm the electronic tally is correct.
Any system which does not supply these safeguards is either going to be abused or, almost as bad, will not be able to prove that it has not been abused.