The only problem with this is lawsuits. Given the fact that I don't like the
government, shutting it down isn't so bad, but there are people who depend on
government services (especially in areas where the government has made itself
the only provider), so this is the issue: Anyone who doesn't like the results of
the election just files a lawsuit accusing someone of fraud, then find a judge
who'll agree to it. Election stopped, time wasted figuring things out.
As soon as one person does it, it'll happen ALL the time. Knowing that, no
politician is going to fail to use that to keep this from happening. I don't
think it matters how much data there is that this is secure; it isn't a science
issue, it's law, the same as the silicon breast-implant issue.
You probably also need a way to make sure that your vote isn't altered once
it enters the public stream, though I suspect the proper public-key encryption
would prevent this, though again it lends itself to a lawsuit. Since large
numbers of people won't understand this, putting them on a jury is going to be
fun. (Like the trials which use DNA)
Hell, with proper encryption, we don't need representatives (something I
think a holdover from when only land-owners could vote, and communications were
incredibly slow.) And that's why it'll be a long time before this kind of
technology will be implemented. (Isn't that sad, too, how often technology
exists but politics prevents its use?)
Mike
>Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 23:44:06 -0500
>From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
>Subject: Re: election: I wonder.....
>No, it's not my Chicagoan blood showing through. It's just that I feel that
>votes won't be secure until they come up with a way to use PGP signatures.
>Better yet would be if the cryptomagic folks come up with a way to
>double-blind the votes, as with some of the proposals that have been floated
>for untraceable, non-double-spendable digital cash. An ideal crypto election
>system would have the following properties:
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