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Internet voting is a bad idea. It's vulnerable to coercion. Even if we can guarantee the votes are submitted and counted accurately, it's impossible to tell if
by Strilanc 15y ago
Internet voting is a bad idea. It's vulnerable to coercion.
Even if we can guarantee the votes are submitted and counted accurately, it's impossible to tell if my boss was standing behind me telling me what to vote (or lose my job).
At a polling station they prevent coercion by enforcing secrecy. One person in a voting booth at a time, no cameras in the voting booth, etc. If you can't prove you voted either way, you're free to lie about how you voted.
- rfugger 15y agoI agree. It is a legitimate question, though, to ask whether the benefits of internet voting outweigh the increased opportunity for coercion. No internet voting advocates seem to be addressing that question, though, which makes me think that it is premature to be rolling out these kinds of systems.
- mrsebastian 15y agoThat's a very, very good point. I don't even see an easy workaround, either... Hrm...
- bdr 15y agoWhat about letting people change their vote?
- sgolestane 15y agoIn Estonia voters can change their e-votes an unlimited number of times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_in_Estonia#Overview_of_Estonian_Internet_voting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_in_Estonia#Ov...
- shasta 15y agoYou'd also need to let people arrange to vote and then later cast a fake vote, for the case of coercion at the voting deadline And that only works if the upcoming coercion is known in advance.
- bdr 15y agoWouldn't that have the symmetric problem of coercion at the beginning?
- LeafStorm 15y agoDon't the same problems apply to voting by mail?
- daenz 15y ago> it's impossible to tell if my boss was standing behind me telling me what to vote (or lose my job). Then you just say you already voted and lie who you voted for. What will they do, confiscate your phone? (assuming phone voting). There are so many "outs" to the coercion scenario that it seems implausible that it would ever occur on any significant scale. What scenario can you think of where coercion would be a real issue?
- fr0sty 15y ago> What scenario can you think of where coercion would be a real issue? Forget about intimidation and consider bribery. Instead of a domineering boss threatening termination imagine a man with a laptop and a roll of $20 bills.
- rmc 15y agoit's impossible to tell if my boss was standing behind me telling me what to vote Or, much more likely and hard to change, a domineering family member making sure everyone votes the same way.
- tomjen3 15y agoOn the contrary, most voters will carry a cell phone which is capable of taking pictures. So your corruption scenario is as applicable to the real world as it is to Internet voting.
- sirclueless 15y ago"Log in and vote for candidate X while I watch" is a much more credible threat than "Bring me a picture of your ballot where you voted for candidate X".