European Tribune

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In the era of absentee ballots and internet voting it seems the concept of secret ballots has gone the way of the dodo.

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Dec 29th, 2007 at 07:21:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It would be interesting to have a system of national ID card with public key encryption: a pair would be generated and the government would keep one key while the ID card would contain the other key.

Other than that, I cannot imagine internet voting ever being secure enough.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Dec 29th, 2007 at 07:37:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The infrastructure already exists in Finland. There are lots of links.

More also here

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Dec 29th, 2007 at 08:01:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Only if you mean "secret" from the State, not from your neighbors, employers and family members.  They do not have access to your absentee ballot or Internet voting record.  (Or shouldn't!)

I think that State reprisals against voters for particular parties or candidates is not a particularly huge concern in the so-called developed world.  But there are still plenty of people within our "Western" societies who could face personal or professional repercussions if their political leanings were to be known, or who for a variety of reasons would rather not have their co-workers or family members know who they vote for, even within the confines of a particular political party.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Sat Dec 29th, 2007 at 08:38:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Absentee ballots means nothing prevents say, an employer to gather its employees and ask for them to fill up their absentee ballots. The only prevention from that would be the public outcry, which could be prevented with enough firing threats.

I'm certain some abusive spouses already force their spouses' votes this way.

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Dec 29th, 2007 at 09:34:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
That's true, that's a very real danger.  Some jurisdictions have different ways of trying to deal with that, mainly by discouraging people from voting absentee -- such as placing conditions on who qualifies for an absentee ballot, or only counting the absentee ballots if there are enough of them to affect the outcome of a close vote.  But those don't really deal with what you're talking about, and I can't think of anything systemic that would.
by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Sat Dec 29th, 2007 at 10:00:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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