John Kinsella mentioned:
> All that is necessary for vote-tampering to triumph is for good
> programmers to (not) check the code.
Sadly there are many ways to defraud voters without having to resort to
technical trickery.
With the recent recounts in Wicklow et al, I would not be surprised if some
ballots mysteriously "disappeared". And then one gets individuals who voted,
but didn't really. And if you want to go high tech, how about disappearing
ink.
But why be so fancy, when all an aspiring dictator needs to do is bribe and
beat his/her way to the top?
Although I do agree that the any election code should be open source, and
checksums of the relevant binaries should be published and verifiable.
One could go even further, and design terminals so that the election
application is stored on a smart card (or floppy disk), which can then be
examined for any signs of wrong doing. This would also be reusable, lowering
the TCO. And... and...
Hmmm. I have this feeling I should be making a phone call to Enterprise
Ireland.
- Matthew
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