eVoting developments abroad

bonkey

Although its perhaps not the most topical thing at the moement, I found the following article about the progress of eVoting in Switzerland to be quite interesting:

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=106&sid=6176853&cKey=1129794065000

I find it somewhat interesting that the Swiss don't appear to have any major objections to the implementation of this system, considering the furore in Ireland (and elsewhere) about the need for a VVAT in electronic voting systems.

Maybe its a case that the votes can be verified by the Telcos, should the need arise...but then this in turn raises an interesting question: what if Telco's start collecting and analysing the voting patters of their users, given that they will have *all* the information to match vote to person. What if they were none-too-honest....they could potentially start using, or selling this information. If I had hat-shaped tinfoil nearby, I could even speculate on Swisscom manipulating results to its own advantage*.

Now, maybe I'm jumping the gun here. This is still effectively only on trial, and the Swiss people have the ability to insist on its withdrawal at any stage by forcing (and winning) a referendum on the issue. But I found it interesting that (as mentioned in the article) there is the suggestion that "Switzerland has fallen behind in this area, but this is a step in the right direction". If not having SMS voting means you've fallen behind....exactly who is leading the way?

jc

* I would then speculate further on Swisscom buying Eircom, and what this would mean for Ireland, but even my best tinfoil hats aren't that shiny.

oscarBravo

Leaving aside (for the moment) the debate on whether it's possible to have confidence in the result of a poll like this, one thing is clear: it completely undermines the concept of the secret ballot.

No matter how carefully you authenticate the person casting a remote ballot, you can't be certain that a vote cast by SMS was done so of the voter's own free will.

And you just can't beat the thrill of the count.

Cork

Deleted User wrote:

And you just can't beat the thrill of the count.

Easily. Counts are boring. Recounts could last for days not to mention legal challanges.

bonkey

oscarBravo wrote:

one thing is clear: it completely undermines the concept of the secret ballot.

Indeed it does. Interestingly, the Swiss don't seem too worried about this. Yet.

No matter how carefully you authenticate the person casting a remote ballot, you can't be certain that a vote cast by SMS was done so of the voter's own free will.

Interesting point, but I guess one could consider a "practical perspective" whereby its clear that the number of votes which could be manipulated in this way would be small. My bigger concern would be the firmware (maybe a bit tinfoil-hatty), and various software that huge volumes of SMS votes would pass through before entering the election system itself. Look at the degree of certainty the Irish - or at least a vocal minority thereof - wanted performed on closed systems for eVoting. Now add in that you have to trust the telco's and their employees to play fair...with far less overisght. At the end of the day, the Swiss just don't seem really concerned about voter-fraud. Maybe they're too complacent, but I find the difference fascinating. jc

bonkey

Deleted User wrote:

And you just can't beat the thrill of the count.

For some, it does indeed seem that way. Never quite got it myself. I guess for me, I'd rather see high voter particpation through ease-of-access then retain a more enjoyable circus for a small few. OK - they reckon it won't make that much of a difference here, cause it will be mostly those who vote by post already who'll use the SMS, but every increase is worthwhile. jc