9 ms·

Merely last name and DOB brings up a fairly unique value. This is what Walgreens, and others, now use instead of SSN. There was an earlier HN item about how DO

Merely last name and DOB brings up a fairly unique value. This is what Walgreens, and others, now use instead of SSN. There was an earlier HN item about how DOB, gender, and Zip identifies 87% of the US population uniquely. No SSN needed in either case. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2942967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2942967

jdormit 10y ago
I would argue that 87% is an unacceptable margin of error given that we are talking about the presidential election.
- bronson 10y ago
  That margin of error is across the whole country. Vote checking would run over a much smaller area.
  - wesnerm2 10y ago
    It doesn't matter if it's across the whole country because the identification incorporates zipcodes. All ambiguities are local to a single town.
    - bronson 10y ago
      agreed and upvoted.
- drzaiusapelord 10y ago
  This would be to find those multi-registered voters. Considering the current system is merely first + lastname, I think either approach above would be superior and without leaking SSN's to yet another government database.