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Why Electronic Voting is a BAD Idea - Computerphile

Computerphile

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  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

2.2M views11 years ago7 recommendations

SecurityCryptographyWeb and application security

Tom Scott explains why electronic voting systems are inherently insecure and why paper ballots remain the most reliable method for democratic elections.

Voting is centuries old, why can't we move with the times and use our phones, tablets and computers? Tom Scott lays out why e-voting is such a bad idea. More from Tom Scott: youtube.com/user/enyay and twitter.com/tomscott facebook.com/computerphile twitter.com/computer_phile This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley. Computer Science at the University of Nottingham: bit.ly/nottscomputer Computerphile is a sister project to Brady Haran's Numberphile. See the full list of Brady's video projects at: bit.ly/bradychannels

Why it's here

7 people recommend this

What people say. Widely cited as the definitive, easy-to-understand explanation of why software-based voting systems cannot be trusted.

pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Unit tests fail when run in Australia”

I love Tom Scott's computerphile videos. His frustration grows over a few videos; his videos about the difficulties of internationalization1 and the problems of electronic voting2 are even crazier. 1 link 2 link to this video
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ajurnaon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Could programmers convince society not to use software voting systems?”

please watch this: link to this video it has a good list of reasons why software voting is a terrible idea. also the secret ballet is very important to maintaining the fairness of elections.
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marcyb5ston Hacker News • Recommends

On “US mid-terms: Hackers expose 'staggering' voter machine flaws”

I love this video( link to this video ) from Tom Scott in which he explains quite well why e-voting is inherently bad. I am very happy that here in Switzerland, even if we have to vote several times every year, we still do it the old fashion way :).
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mcaston Hacker News • Recommends

On “Election Commission of India throws “open challenge” to hack voting machines”

Having open source voting systems is a great thing, but electronic voting is inherehently flawed and is a terrible idea. There's no way to prove the checksum of your software is real unless you have root access to the voting machine and are assuming the OS is not compromised. Decentralized electronic machines that print paper ballots for you (which you can physically verify), and submitting to a tabulator seem to be the safest option. But your paper ballot can be compromised in transit by a worker. I have also heard talks about using a blockchain-esque system for voting and verifying it online with a hash code. Here's a great video by Tom Scott: link to this video
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herogreenon Hacker News • Recommends

On “XKCD: Voting software”

Perhaps the most important political message I have seen on XKCD. Related Computerphile episode: link to this video I guess that some computer-powered elections are coming in the US, EU ?
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ninjaPixelon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Darpa wants help cracking the election security problem”

I thought it was nonsense when I first heard it, but the traditional paper system is actually more secure than a completely digital system. Here is a really good video explaining it: link to this video
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DontBreakAlexon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Tell HN: Azure outage”

In europe, voting typically happens in one day, where everyone physically goes to their designated voting place and puts papers in a transparent box. You can stay there and wait for the count at the end of the day if you want to. Tom Scott has a very good video about why we don't want electronic/mail voting: link to this video
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u/TwistedShaftsin r/compsci • Mentions

On “I Bought Used Voting Machines on eBay for $100 Apiece. What I Found Was Alarming”

Relevant Tom Scott: link to this video
4View on Reddit

mclemmeon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why Online Voting Is a Danger to Democracy”

I can't see how that in any way can be anywhere near secure enough. Online voting for anything important, is a bad idea. link to this video
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vladimirralevon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source”

The more people insist such verification is possible, the less you should trust them, they don't understand the issues1. It might be possible to come up with some provably verifiable scheme but they are very sophisticated and revised often because people still come up with ways to skew them2. 1 link to this video 2 link
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zAy0LfpBZLC8mACon Hacker News • Mentions

On “The careless errors of credit reporting agencies”

…rom power that tries to prevent being removed, and they are about the control of huge amounts of recources. Therefore, you cannot have trust in a small minority as the basis for its reliability, you have to have a system that is very hard to corrupt even by the government. A government server counting votes is the exact opposite of that. See also: link to this video The fact that, so far, noone has seen any problems is completely missing the point. First of all, the whole system is set up such that it's really difficult to find out if something went wrong/was manipulated (that's just the nature of electronic voting). Secondly, most elections aren't all that problematic. In times of peace and prosperity…
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fredleyon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Brexit vote site may have been hacked, MPs say in report”

Because people move, and you need to be registered to vote in the right constituency and polling station (and those need to be well positioned/balanced so that too many people aren't voting in once place - which could mean some are unable to vote due to queues). Being able to vote anywhere is not an option - it would required digital voting, which we do not want .1 1: link to this video
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danhardmanon Hacker News • Mentions

On “To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software”

I'd like to reference Tom Scott's video0 here. There is no need for an electronic voting system, paper ballots work perfectly. 0 link to this video
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foepyson Hacker News • Mentions

On “Estonia is planning to launch Estcoin”

Nobody sane would want e-voting. It has exactly the same problems as voting machines and in addition to that is heavily vulnerable to DDoS attacks and ID theft. Tom Scott on electronic voting: link to this video
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zyxzevnon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Hackers targeting election networks across country prior to midterms”

Computerphile - Why electric voting is a bad idea( link to this video ). No hacker can hack paper. Don't be triggered, but I still haven't seen any real evidence of "Russian Hacking" of the Election. Until now it has only been a political game to discredit Wikileaks. You can find some reasonable neutral info on link But there were some actual hacking reports like plugging USB-sticks in voting machines. The most recent one I found is an alleged failed hack in Georgia( link ). These are all cases that I want to be looked at, but I do not see that in the news. There are plans by Homelands security to take over the election infrastructure. If you trust them it is ok. If they start to plant their ow…
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Fejon Hacker News • Mentions

On “New election systems use vulnerable software, Windows 7”

Per usual, here's the video from Computerphile on why digital election systems are a terrible, terrible idea: link to this video
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