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How is the serial number used to confirm that the person using it is who the ballet was issued to?

LeoPanthera 3y ago
When your ballot is handed to you, your home address is recorded in a log. It's handed to you inside the voting station, you can't take it back out.
- j33zusjuice 3y ago
  Your ballot is linked to your address? So, someone could link a ballot to the voter? That’s not something we want in the US. It’s intended to be anonymous.
  - sbuttgereit 3y ago
    I live in San Francisco, CA, USA. Ballots here are also serialized and many (most?) people vote by mail which means that serialized ballots are mailed to you specifically at your registered address. After the vote, you can check the status of the ballot's serial number at the appropriate city/county website. It won't tell you who voted or the votes cast, but that it was received. So while the website won't link you to your votes, the city/county could absolutely make that connection since they control the serialization and the mailing. One hopes that they don't do this, and I'm sure they're not suppose to, but trust and wishes are the best surety we have for vote by mail ballots... there are ways to defeat the loss of anonymity in this case, but they involve not voting by mail or providing false signals (i.e. swapping ballots with someone else in your district).
  - LeoPanthera 3y ago
    This is, in theory, possible. However, the information remains in your local district, and is not passed up the chain with the results. It's one of those things that sounds bad in theory but is rarely an actual problem in practice.
j33zusjuice 3y ago
How do they verify the answer wasn’t overwritten, since it’s in pencil? I can imagine a lot of potential security flaws in that system.
- LeoPanthera 3y ago
  Once you've recorded your vote, you personally insert it into a sealed box with a slot. The boxes are opened for counting as part of a public process, with independent observers.

When your ballot is handed to you, your home address is recorded in a log. It's handed to you inside the voting station, you can't take it back out.

j33zusjuice 3y ago
Your ballot is linked to your address? So, someone could link a ballot to the voter? That’s not something we want in the US. It’s intended to be anonymous.
- sbuttgereit 3y ago
  I live in San Francisco, CA, USA. Ballots here are also serialized and many (most?) people vote by mail which means that serialized ballots are mailed to you specifically at your registered address. After the vote, you can check the status of the ballot's serial number at the appropriate city/county website. It won't tell you who voted or the votes cast, but that it was received. So while the website won't link you to your votes, the city/county could absolutely make that connection since they control the serialization and the mailing. One hopes that they don't do this, and I'm sure they're not suppose to, but trust and wishes are the best surety we have for vote by mail ballots... there are ways to defeat the loss of anonymity in this case, but they involve not voting by mail or providing false signals (i.e. swapping ballots with someone else in your district).
- LeoPanthera 3y ago
  This is, in theory, possible. However, the information remains in your local district, and is not passed up the chain with the results. It's one of those things that sounds bad in theory but is rarely an actual problem in practice.

j33zusjuice 3y ago

How do they verify the answer wasn’t overwritten, since it’s in pencil? I can imagine a lot of potential security flaws in that system.

LeoPanthera 3y ago
Once you've recorded your vote, you personally insert it into a sealed box with a slot. The boxes are opened for counting as part of a public process, with independent observers.