That’s just it. They don’t prevent digital theft. They write it off and move on.
Believe me or don’t, no skin off me, but the GRU would have a field day with what you propose.
3 Likes
PAPER BALLOTS. Hand counting—OLD SCHOOL. That’s the only way to go. Online voting or voting on your phone are too easy to hack via computer. Kids can do it and now there are apps that can change votes on computers:
Kids at hacking conference show how easily US elections could be sabotaged
MIT researchers report that widely used voting app could easily be hacked
If you have an absentee ballot don’t rely on the mail to get your ballot submitted on time especially with tRump newly hand picked Postmaster General. If you are close to your voting precinct, take it there in person and give it to the clerk. You don’t have to wait in line like voting in person. My precinct had a special mailbox outside City Hall just for ballots. I would not rely on anything electronic. People also need to come prepared with fold up chairs, water and snacks. Look at voting now in areas where you do have to stand in line like a sporting event.
9 Likes
One confirmed hack in the voting process would entirely destroy the legitimacy of an election done over the internet.
1 Like
The elephant in the room is that we have two main political parties, both treated to a bunch of BothSider WhatAboutism.
And one of these parties absolutely needs to cheat, effectively making the process 4 X harder than need be.
I mentioned Overlord above. Suppose the GOP was dead-set against FDR at Every SINGLE turn?
6 Likes
It’s a mistake to consider this a hard problem. Sure, there are challenges, but this is really easy compared to things governments and companies do every day. Print some more ballots, hire some more people, dump the electronic machines.
2 Likes
If it was big enough to make a difference, they’d do something about it. I’m guessing that it’s about cost/benefit. If it cost much more to prevent it than would be saved, why bother? A different sort of attitude would obviously have to prevail with online voting. Not saying it would be done right, just that it can be. The real problem is political will, sufficient resources and time, and proper project management.
It’s also less about the back-end, which can be hacked with current in-person and absentee ballot voting, than the front end and its connection to the back-end. Realistically, it probably won’t be able to happen before 2028, if not 2032, given how long it takes the feds to do anything, and to have enough time to get it right. But it can be done. and eventually, it will.
The bigger fear is “internal” hacking. I.e. let it fail on purpose, to benefit incumbents.
1 Like
One low tech solution would be to have at least two weeks of early voting nationwide. That way we could spread out the number of people coming to the polls at any one time. Only downside would be that those who voted early might regret their vote if some bombshell came out in late October, like the tax returns of a certain candidate.
5 Likes
As they have found with trying to switch to on-line learning for elementary/middle/high school, there are a number of households (mostly low-income) without internet access or even a computer. There is also the fact that there are a number of elderly who would find it difficult as well. Securing the sites is very expensive.
5 Likes
Yes, infinite money is definitely more than would be saved. There is the problem of political will (especially since politics is bent to the will of the 0.01% and their green slips of ‘speech’) AND an insurmountable technical problem as well.
Am I the only person that remembers the Iowa Dem primary?
One good DDoS and your online election is toast.
1 Like
Do you honestly think hack-proofing the voting process solves the security issue? Social media is already flooded with misinformation about Biden, influencing voters. What is your solution for that?
There is also the real threat of ransomware attacks in 2020, similar to what happened in 2019.
1 Like
As bad as Florida was and I agree it was but it was the Supreme Court that gave the election to Bush.
4 Likes
As I love to point out when people say they are against mail-in voting, then you must not support the troops (I know r/w loves to trot this out) because they are the single largest group that does mail-in voting.
5 Likes
Any delay in producing vote totals will cast doubt on their accuracy. There is also the issue of the accuracy of the backup file.
1 Like
Nonsense. Again, it all depends on how badly you want to get it right, how much you’re willing to spend on it, and how well you manage it. All big if’s, but not impossibilities. Or, why haven’t hackers been able to launch nukes and take down the power grid? Just waiting for Vlady to give the go-ahead?
By definition, hack-proofing the process hack-proofs the process. If it can be hacked, then it’s not hack-proof. And misinformation is a TOTALLY different issue.
They had to be in a position to do so and that required the FL Supremes and Katherine “Black Widow” Harris.
2 Likes
Yeah, but who’s going to pay for those backups.
All they have to do is change an address by one digit, just one digit, and the voter’s ability to vote is removed. I believe that’s already happened and by the time the reconciliation is done, it’s oops, too bad - polls are closed and the election is already over.
Without permanent voter ID, this nonsense is very possible. Very possible (I’m a software consultant - I live for this stuff).
3 Likes
This, and a whole bunch of other reasons, are why I dismiss knee-jerk predictions of massive SUCCESSFUL election fraud and Trump’s reelection, which I believe are motivated more by fear than reality. It’s like some folks, too discouraged and afraid that Trump will steal it again, have decided to give up in advance to avoid having to go through the agony of yet another stolen election. Which, if Trump wins, is actually how he’ll win, by scaring enough people into giving up to give him an opening to win. He wins via psychological intimidation that otherwise smart people are too stupid to see through.
2 Likes
You can’t run an online election in the same way as those network isolated systems; not apples and oranges but oranges and orangutans.
Also, because you can’t sell oil to irradiated customers.
1 Like
Sadly, that just isn’t going to work for many voters. I understand and agree with all that you said, but it’s just not going to work that way for all.