4 ms·

The problem is that the computer becomes effectively an expensive pencil. You haven't gained a lot, but the cost increases a lot. Worse, there is a huge increas

• patrickk 10y ago
  > This is also a serious problem if it is possible for the voter's copy of the identifier to recover their vote after they have left the voting booth. That would enable vote buying or coercing votes. How is this issue currently dealt with in places that allow mail in ballots?
  • hifigi 10y ago
    In Washington state (King County), the mail-in ballots are placed inside a privacy "sleeve" that contains a signed statement on the outside that you autograph. If your signature matches the signature of your voter registration, the ballot is removed from the privacy sleeve and put into an anonymous pile. It is then processed by a scantron machine. You only get a confirmation that your vote was processed into the system and counted.
    • function_seven 10y ago
      But none of that prevents a Alice from forcing Bob to mark his ballot in the prescribed way, with Alice then taking it to the mailbox herself. Bob may choose to deliberately change his signature so the ballot is at least invalidated, but that still takes a vote away from his preferred candidate, and would rely on Alice not knowing what Bob's true signature looks like.
  • usrusr 10y ago
    > How is this issue currently dealt with in places that allow mail in ballots? Good question. The best answer I have been able to come up with is that those places are simply hoping that mail in ballots are too rare to make them a target. Increasing popularity relative to in person voting could challenge that, but with today's abundance of handheld cameras, in person voting stops being much safer.
• codecamper 10y ago
  Cost is certainly lower than the cost of an unwanted or unchosen president.