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It's sad that elections, one of the most important things we have here in America are ran on closed sourced copyrighted systems owned by corporations. They say

by Keverw 10y ago

It's sad that elections, one of the most important things we have here in America are ran on closed sourced copyrighted systems owned by corporations. They say it's rigged, I would hope it's not but really who knows if they don't have access to the code?

grzm 10y ago
I think it would be nice to have the source code open for review. However, that doesn't solve the problem. It's very difficult (impossible?) to guarantee the reviewed software is what's actually running on the machines, not to mention how does one validate the compilation, the OS, the firmware, the hardware—you get the picture. And the voting machine itself is only one part of the whole voting system. It sounds like this is something you're interested in. I encourage you to take a look at what's being done. I've shared a couple of links elsewhere in this thread, which if nothing else can provide a starting point.
- Keverw 10y ago
  Yeah good point. Hashing the binary wouldn't really help because they could modify the GUI to report the wrong hash and most people who aren't computer people wouldn't really get what it means anyways. I been thinking a blockchain based system would be interesting, but it'd have to be really easy to use for everyone. People who have no computer or phone all the way to the computer expert.
  - grzm 10y ago
    I think blockchain might have some application, but I'm unconvinced that computer technology alone is going to solve it. Have a look at this slide deck from Ron Rivest (of RSA fame). https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv16x.pdf https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv16x.pdf I think he does a pretty good job of covering the history of modern voting and how technology can be properly applied. You might find this Google Tech Talk by Ben Adida "Verifying Elections with Cryptography" interesting as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDnShu5V99s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDnShu5V99s

by Keverw 10y ago

grzm 10y ago

I think it would be nice to have the source code open for review. However, that doesn't solve the problem. It's very difficult (impossible?) to guarantee the reviewed software is what's actually running on the machines, not to mention how does one validate the compilation, the OS, the firmware, the hardware—you get the picture. And the voting machine itself is only one part of the whole voting system. It sounds like this is something you're interested in. I encourage you to take a look at what's being done. I've shared a couple of links elsewhere in this thread, which if nothing else can provide a starting point.

Keverw 10y ago
Yeah good point. Hashing the binary wouldn't really help because they could modify the GUI to report the wrong hash and most people who aren't computer people wouldn't really get what it means anyways. I been thinking a blockchain based system would be interesting, but it'd have to be really easy to use for everyone. People who have no computer or phone all the way to the computer expert.
- grzm 10y ago
  I think blockchain might have some application, but I'm unconvinced that computer technology alone is going to solve it. Have a look at this slide deck from Ron Rivest (of RSA fame). https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv16x.pdf https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/pubs/Riv16x.pdf I think he does a pretty good job of covering the history of modern voting and how technology can be properly applied. You might find this Google Tech Talk by Ben Adida "Verifying Elections with Cryptography" interesting as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDnShu5V99s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDnShu5V99s