Chaumian blinding & public voting?

Tim May timcmay at got.net
Mon Nov 3 09:38:34 PST 2003


On Monday, November 3, 2003, at 02:44  AM, ken wrote:

> Major Variola (ret) wrote:
>
>> Currently voting is trusted because political adversaries supervise 
>> the
>> process.
>> Previously the mechanics were, well, mechanical, ie, open for
>> inspection.
>
> That really is worth saying more often.
>
> If we here can't agree on how to make machine voting  both robust and 
> private, then  EVEN IF A PERFECT SYSTEM COULD BE DESIGNED it is 
> extremely unlikely that a large number of people could be persuaded 
> that it /was/ perfect.

There are already people who are confused by, and in some cases afraid 
of, computer touch screen voting. Some of these  people are the ones 
who refuse to use automated teller machines and insist on deal with 
real bank tellers. Some of them think the government is watching. Some 
of them are just weird.

Trying to educate these people about Chaumian blinding is pointless.

(And don't count on the younger generation...they are often 
less-educated than their parents and grandparents, and in the ghettoes, 
than their 60-year-old great grandparents.)

I can see the PR campaign on WWF wrestling:  "Using a combination of 
Diffie-Hellman and holographic mark inspection, Alice is assured that  
Vinnie the Votebuyer cannot interfere, by means of a standard ANDO 
protocol..."

Those who propose sophisticated voting systems are sentenced to reread 
Clarke's "Superiority."

--Tim May
"Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid.  But 
stupidity is the only universal crime;  the sentence is death, there is 
no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without 
pity." --Robert A. Heinlein





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