4 ms·

Just use multi-step authentication, one of which is sometime during the year showing up somewhere in person. Let one of the required authentication methods be

Just use multi-step authentication, one of which is sometime during the year showing up somewhere in person. Let one of the required authentication methods be designating a close friend or relative that is also a voter who can confirm that you actually voted. So they would get an electronic message with a url they would have to click after speaking with you and confirming that you did vote on the day in question. Make it so people have to be home to vote. And if we required the same process to confirm changes in address, we could cut down on identity fraud in general. Using multiple methods will make it harder to game the process. Its very hard to steal someone's password AND steal their phone AND kidnap a relative AND camp out at their house. Those that can't manage all of the required steps can keep voting the way they do now. They'll have much shorter lines to deal without everyone else there.

tallanvor 14y ago
I'm an expat... Showing up somewhere in person once a year is unlikely to be an option for me when you take into account that I visit the US every other year on average. And before you suggest using embassies as an option, you're assuming you live in a city with an embassy, or that you should be required to travel to one, regardless of the cost. How do you guarantee that the mail server will be up after you vote? Or that the server sending out the email won't be hit by a denial of service attack? For that matter, how do you determine if someone is at home? --Most people don't have fixed IP addresses, and they can be spoofed anyway. Finally, how do you determine that the vote logged in the database is what the person actually voted for and wasn't changed at a later time? With a paper ballot, you can always recount. Recounting database information is less easy.

tallanvor 14y ago

I'm an expat... Showing up somewhere in person once a year is unlikely to be an option for me when you take into account that I visit the US every other year on average. And before you suggest using embassies as an option, you're assuming you live in a city with an embassy, or that you should be required to travel to one, regardless of the cost. How do you guarantee that the mail server will be up after you vote? Or that the server sending out the email won't be hit by a denial of service attack? For that matter, how do you determine if someone is at home? --Most people don't have fixed IP addresses, and they can be spoofed anyway. Finally, how do you determine that the vote logged in the database is what the person actually voted for and wasn't changed at a later time? With a paper ballot, you can always recount. Recounting database information is less easy.