Why the need for a paper trail?

Why the need for a paper trail?

Posted Aug 20, 2004 14:52 UTC (Fri) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)
In reply to: Why the need for a paper trail? by vdvo
Parent article: Will 'controlled open source' software take over election work? (NewsForge)

Complicated series of steps deleted

What have I missed?

A very important point:

Joe Average's eyes will glaze over when he gets to step 2. Voting must not only be fair, it must be seen to be fair by average members of the public. A voting system is no good if only 1% of the population (computer scientists) can understand and trust it.

A simple paper ballot is easily understandable by anyone capable of voting. Recounting paper ballots is easily understandable and verifiable by anyone capable of voting.

Even if someone came up with hack-proof hardware, hack-proof software, hack-proof officials and a hack-proof voting protocol (all of which is highly unlikely), it would still not be good enough because it's too complex for the large majority of the population to understand.

I don't know why people insist on trying to mis-apply technology where it will only create new problems. There is no problem whatsoever with paper ballots; there's absolutely no need to corrupt the system with technology.

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