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Mobile voting is a nightmare idea. A very large portion of the population is far from tech savvy, but to have mobile voting as an option, the entire voting base

Mobile voting is a nightmare idea. A very large portion of the population is far from tech savvy, but to have mobile voting as an option, the entire voting base has the know how to correctly place a mobile vote, or else a significant percentange of the population could get duped into using a fake voting app/site and not actually voting. Authenticating voters is also a significant technical problem, as the barriers to voting have to be thin, but not so thin that one malicious actor with up to date voter registration information for a precinct could own that precinct. This also seems to suffer the same problems as DRE (direct recording electronic) voting machines with regards to no way to ensure a voters vote is recorded correctly and accurately. I have no confidence in any mobile voting scheme, and for an election, lack of public confidence in a process should be immediately disqualifying for said process.

jimmaswell 7y ago
One verification avenue that comes to mind is matching fingerprints but that would only work for those who both can afford such a high-end phone and can take time off to go register their fingerprints with their voting office, or however that would be implemented. Maybe a future rollout like this could be done when biometrics like this are standard in cheap smartphones and biometric collection becomes a standard voluntary part of voter registration. Maybe mail-in ballots could come with QR codes but this kind of defeats the idea of a mobile-only option. Maybe we just need to accept that some voter fraud will happen like it already does (the standard for voting in-person is nothing but matching the name you tell them to a list of names, not even any ID required) and settle for something potentially exploitable like SMS's with links sent to phone numbers whose registered names/addresses correspond to a registered voter, where you then have to verify some information like past addresses or whatever. If we'd just force telecom companies to tighten up their security that would be a perfect solution, and as it is it's probably good enough using the existing rate of voter fraud as a bar. Stealing a phone number in the process of identity theft is something that happens and is easier than it should be but it still takes a while on the phone and someone making a full time job of it just to hope to catch that automated text probably wouldn't get that many, if the texts were sent at random times throughout a whole month or so.

jimmaswell 7y ago

One verification avenue that comes to mind is matching fingerprints but that would only work for those who both can afford such a high-end phone and can take time off to go register their fingerprints with their voting office, or however that would be implemented. Maybe a future rollout like this could be done when biometrics like this are standard in cheap smartphones and biometric collection becomes a standard voluntary part of voter registration. Maybe mail-in ballots could come with QR codes but this kind of defeats the idea of a mobile-only option. Maybe we just need to accept that some voter fraud will happen like it already does (the standard for voting in-person is nothing but matching the name you tell them to a list of names, not even any ID required) and settle for something potentially exploitable like SMS's with links sent to phone numbers whose registered names/addresses correspond to a registered voter, where you then have to verify some information like past addresses or whatever. If we'd just force telecom companies to tighten up their security that would be a perfect solution, and as it is it's probably good enough using the existing rate of voter fraud as a bar. Stealing a phone number in the process of identity theft is something that happens and is easier than it should be but it still takes a while on the phone and someone making a full time job of it just to hope to catch that automated text probably wouldn't get that many, if the texts were sent at random times throughout a whole month or so.