Comment Re:E-Voting (Score 2, Insightful) 471
Second, what I don't get, is why can't we use electronics to print out a "ballot" with our selections done in the comfort of home, and just take this "ballot" to a polling place?
How do you know that the ballot you are printing is the correct one? Just because it comes from what looks like the official voting web site doesn't mean that it actually is. What happens when scores of people show up with thier home printed ballots that are invalid? Have them vote at the voting station? Why not just have them do that in the first place?
What if, even worse, somebody slightly changes the online ballot to trick people into voting for the wrong person? Perhaps they switch the names, so that when voting for Person A, the scantron machine actually reads it as a vote for Person B. The machine accepts it without error and it looks to the voter like they've voted for who they want. Unless a ballot is given to a voter by an election judge there is no real way of knowing if it is valid and without hidden tricks. Even then there could be doubt about a ballot's validity.
It may sound like I'm being paranoid and overly critical about using technology for elections, but with so much on the line it would seem very likely that somebody with an interest in who gets elected could try to sway an election like this.
How do you know that the ballot you are printing is the correct one? Just because it comes from what looks like the official voting web site doesn't mean that it actually is. What happens when scores of people show up with thier home printed ballots that are invalid? Have them vote at the voting station? Why not just have them do that in the first place?
What if, even worse, somebody slightly changes the online ballot to trick people into voting for the wrong person? Perhaps they switch the names, so that when voting for Person A, the scantron machine actually reads it as a vote for Person B. The machine accepts it without error and it looks to the voter like they've voted for who they want. Unless a ballot is given to a voter by an election judge there is no real way of knowing if it is valid and without hidden tricks. Even then there could be doubt about a ballot's validity.
It may sound like I'm being paranoid and overly critical about using technology for elections, but with so much on the line it would seem very likely that somebody with an interest in who gets elected could try to sway an election like this.
