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We only every needed technology to make sure ballots get encoded correctly. We could do that with open source software, commodity PCs and card punch machines a

We only every needed technology to make sure ballots get encoded correctly. We could do that with open source software, commodity PCs and card punch machines and readers. Then validating that your choices were encoded correctly would be easier. So would counting. You could count at the voting location to get fast results and recount once the ballots arrive at the central office to confirm that the reported count was correct. You could keep the initial counts at the polling place. Then later compare those numbers with the second count's to confirm that nothing happened to the ballots. You also should have a unique number on each ballot that you can later use to look up how your ballot was recorded. None of this should require advanced technology, new inventions or secrecy.

cynwoody 10y ago
>You also should have a unique number on each ballot that you can later use to look up how your ballot was recorded. The standard objection to such a practice is that it facilitates vote buying / selling / coercion by giving the voter a means of proving how he voted. However, I think it's a good idea nonetheless. All the ballots, randomly numbered, should go into a file available for download. That way, anyone can count them, and any voter can verify that his particular ballot was recorded correctly.
- stretchwithme 10y ago
  Good points all. People could use their phone to record the entire time they are in the booth.
3pt14159 10y ago
No I don't want you to move my vote before I can see it. Use computers to do the count fast and first if you want to, but I want paper receipts also stuffed into a box and I want to be able to observe the whole process and I want to be able to observe the votes being physically counted at the end. Democracy gives so much legitimacy to her government that it will be gamed if it's possible.
- stretchwithme 10y ago
  If you have your ballot encoded on a punch card, you should be able go a pc with a punch card reader at the polling place and see what is actually encoded on it. The software to read the card could also be open source. Or you could have an app on your phone that snaps a photo and reads it according to the settings published by the municipality where you are voting. All that can happen before you give it to a poll worker.
  - 3pt14159 10y ago
    Yes but I don't want that. I want to be able to read who I voted for with my eyes. I want to be able to check that the ballot box is empty when it comes in and I want to be able to verify that every voter only got one printout that they could check with their eyes what they voted before sliding it in the ballot box. I don't want anyone to be able to stuff a box with a bunch of votes I didn't see. And yes, voting by mail has some of these problems, but it makes up such a tiny fraction of the vote where I live I put up with it without complaining. Voting needs to be so secure that when people like Trump call an election rigged we need to be able to laugh at him and show everyone how secure it is.
    - stretchwithme 10y ago
      It sounds like you want to be a campaign worker.

cynwoody 10y ago

>You also should have a unique number on each ballot that you can later use to look up how your ballot was recorded. The standard objection to such a practice is that it facilitates vote buying / selling / coercion by giving the voter a means of proving how he voted. However, I think it's a good idea nonetheless. All the ballots, randomly numbered, should go into a file available for download. That way, anyone can count them, and any voter can verify that his particular ballot was recorded correctly.

stretchwithme 10y ago
Good points all. People could use their phone to record the entire time they are in the booth.

3pt14159 10y ago

No I don't want you to move my vote before I can see it. Use computers to do the count fast and first if you want to, but I want paper receipts also stuffed into a box and I want to be able to observe the whole process and I want to be able to observe the votes being physically counted at the end. Democracy gives so much legitimacy to her government that it will be gamed if it's possible.

stretchwithme 10y ago
If you have your ballot encoded on a punch card, you should be able go a pc with a punch card reader at the polling place and see what is actually encoded on it. The software to read the card could also be open source. Or you could have an app on your phone that snaps a photo and reads it according to the settings published by the municipality where you are voting. All that can happen before you give it to a poll worker.
- 3pt14159 10y ago
  Yes but I don't want that. I want to be able to read who I voted for with my eyes. I want to be able to check that the ballot box is empty when it comes in and I want to be able to verify that every voter only got one printout that they could check with their eyes what they voted before sliding it in the ballot box. I don't want anyone to be able to stuff a box with a bunch of votes I didn't see. And yes, voting by mail has some of these problems, but it makes up such a tiny fraction of the vote where I live I put up with it without complaining. Voting needs to be so secure that when people like Trump call an election rigged we need to be able to laugh at him and show everyone how secure it is.
  - stretchwithme 10y ago
    It sounds like you want to be a campaign worker.