[kwlug-disc] Say No To Electronic Voting ...

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 9:52 PM Doug Moen <doug at moens.org> wrote:

> The better system is Australian style paper ballots.
> Apparently Waterloo had electronic voting in 2018, but for some reason I
> wasn't aware of this when I went out to vote at a voting station.
>
> I consider internet voting to be inherently untrustworthy, given that:
>  * the entire stack that internet technology runs on, from the CPU up, is
> full of security holes.
>  * internet voting therefore allows state funded adversaries to corrupt
> the vote by remote control, from anywhere in the world.
>  * any technical defence of an internet voting system based on algorithm
> analysis, etc, is meaningless, given that the software is inherently
> untrustworthy.
>
> Paper voting is more trustworthy because all of the information processing
> happens locally. There is no way for hackers in China or Russia to remotely
> corrupt a paper ballot count taking place in an election office in Waterloo.
>
> Paper voting is more trustworthy because the process can be understood by
> anybody with normal or average intelligence. There is no need to trust
> experts spewing incomprehensible technojargon about "cryptographic
> protocols" and so forth.
>
> I agree that internet voting seems to be an unstoppable force, and that
> just means that one aspect of our democratic institutions in Canada is now
> compromised.
>
> The actual method of voting isn't the only aspect of Canadian democracy
> that can be criticized or that could be improved. Just ask Fair Vote Canada
> for their opinions about this. From my perspective, the best democratic
> system I've seen is the Swiss model.
>
> Doug Moen.


Well said Doug.

Foreign actors, which have been more active lately (e.g. US presidentials
in 2016, and Brexit) are indeed an additional threat.
The main threat I see is politicians with despotic tendencies. We see that
lately in the US (complains that the system is rigged but does not complain
when he wins, attacking mail in ballots but not in states that he may win,
may refuse to concede if defeated in November, ...), Russia (who just reset
his term counter to stay on til the mid 2030s), Hungary (froze parliament
and ruling by decree), Italy, ...etc.
If you combine those with money from rich individuals or corporations, they
are more of a threat than foreign actors.

Regardless, paper is still the best system there is, understood by
everyone.
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