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Votes - keep them on paper - count them by hand

The link is to the story from the USA about the death of someone in a suspicious plane crash last week. The someone is someone thought to have been involved in the use of IT to defraud the 2004 election in the USA.

If we wish to keep elections honest then we have to keep voting in secret on paper and counting the pieces of paper by hand. It is not possible to publicly audit electronic systems to a sufficient standard to keep elections honest.

There are two Youtube extracts on the web page linked, both are interesting web pages.

Comments

Exactly, John.

I remember making this point when I was a councillor and my borough was thinking of trialing various uses of computers in elections.

I was, of course, denounced by Labour councillors as some sort of Luddite. It was impossible to get them to understand I was actually making my comments in part on the basis of being a professional computer scientist.

I do find it is often assumed on the basis of my profession that I must be mad keen on computers and wishing to see them used in ever more ways. In fact, the reverse applies - understanding how these things work underneath makes one more sceptical about some of the claims made about them, and more aware of the dangers.

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