[liberationtech] E-Voting

[Eleanor Saitta]

On 2016.11.15 02.57, Zacharia Gichiriri wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> Are there any countries that have implemented a form of mobile voting?
> Is there any research on the potential, challenges and applicability of
> mobile voting? 
> Considering the explosive growth of mobile phones across Africa, would
> the use of mobile phones for elections (citizens voting through mobile
> phones) improve election outcomes and transparency? 

Yes, there has been research done.  The summary is "if you do this,
forget about any chance of having a free and fair election, because it's
hard not to end up accidentally hacking the election, let alone stopping
anyone who might want to actively hack it".

There's a decade or so of research on how bad just electronic voting is,
and another decade of research on how bad mobile phone security is.  The
combination is geometrically worse.

Paper is good.  People watching other people use paper has a pretty well
understood set of failure models.  The problems of electoral integrity
and transparency are social and political ones, not technical ones, and
if you add more technology without solving the social and political
issues, all you're going to do is make a much more convenient crisis.

E.

-- 
Ideas are my favorite toys.