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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @12:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the primary-software dept.

Submitted via IRC for ErnestTBass

From checking in at a polling place on a tablet to registering to vote by smartphone to using an electronic voting machine to cast a ballot, computers have become an increasingly common part of voting in America.

But the underlying technology behind some of those processes is often a black box. Private companies, not state or local governments, develop and maintain most of the software and hardware that keep democracy chugging along. That has kept journalists, academics and even lawmakers from speaking with certainty about election security.

In an effort to improve confidence in elections, Microsoft announced Monday that it is releasing an open-source software development kit called ElectionGuard that will use encryption techniques to let voters know when their vote is counted. It will also allow election officials and third parties to verify election results to make sure there was no interference with the results.

"It's very much like the cybersecurity version of a tamper-proof bottle," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president of customer security and trust, in an interview with NPR. "Tamper-proof bottles don't prevent any hack of the contents of the bottle, but it makes it makes it harder, and it definitely reveals when the tampering has occurred."

Developed with the computer science company Galois, the kit will be available free of charge for election technology vendors to incorporate into their voting systems.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/06/720071488/ahead-of-2020-microsoft-unveils-tool-to-allow-voters-to-track-their-ballots


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Oakenshield on Tuesday May 07 2019, @01:18PM (5 children)

    by Oakenshield (4900) on Tuesday May 07 2019, @01:18PM (#840126)

    The big push for electronic voting machines is a ridiculous solution in search of a problem. If not for the "hanging chad" controversy in Bush v Gore we would still be using dirt simple, unhackable technology. I do not understand why we cannot all use simple optical scanner machines (Scantron) if you absolutely need instantaneous reporting when the polls close. Otherwise, use a plain paper ballot. They seem to work just as intended for absentee ballots. At least in my state, the Diebold machines do print a paper trail in a secured compartment with a window you can view.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday May 07 2019, @01:27PM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 07 2019, @01:27PM (#840128) Journal

    I do not understand why we cannot all use simple optical scanner machines (Scantron) if you absolutely need instantaneous reporting when the polls close.

    "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong"

    H. L. Mencken

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @06:07PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @06:07PM (#840308)

      Error: The problem is not complex. Vote. Count. Report. None of these stages absolutely require electronic anything for the actual grunt-work (and yes, they do for the setup, but that's a "so what" and sorry for making a Straw Man but I fear someone else will). They are being made more complex by the powers that want money spent and retention in office. That's all.

      (Completely ironic given, "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!" our best response is to introduce further complexities into the system.)

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 07 2019, @10:36PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 07 2019, @10:36PM (#840482) Journal

        You sure your vote is counted? Maybe somebody just discarded it or used it as toilet paper.
        Make sure your vote is not changed? Maybe somebody just ticked your vote for another candidate.

        How you make sure the above doesn't happen? Complexity in real world, with multiple meatbags executing 'algorithms' and checks, instead of software.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @06:03PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @06:03PM (#840306)

    They don't make as much progress for the economy. And that's not entirely sarcasm. There are many, many systems in the world which are "good enough" if you take away the profit motive. But the second you do that you risk taking away the forward progress which any economy absolutely must have lest the entire system collapse.

    • (Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Tuesday May 07 2019, @07:55PM

      by Oakenshield (4900) on Tuesday May 07 2019, @07:55PM (#840390)

      Forward "progress" is not necessarily improvement, particularly in the tech world. I give you 3D televisions, foldable phones, and the Metro/Modern interface as examples.