> So what is South Wales doing wrong here, you know, other than trying to let people vote over the internet, which is a horrible idea...
Was this sarcasm I missed? If not what is so horrible about allowing voting over the internet? To me the concept it brilliant if executed well. Especially for engaging the populace in non-compulsory voting countries where people might avoid casting their vote if it's going to take significant time commitment or simply they have other commitments such as work etc.
Voting over the internet allows intra-family coercion, reducing the freedom of women to vote. It also allows for you to vote in front of the party man and collect a bribe for so doing.
Voting on general purpose PCs is so exploitable as to not be funny. What percentage of the electorate are running unpatched XP?
These are great points and would absolutely be issues without proper implementation. Of interest, user atrip commented elsewhere in this thread:
>In Estonia the pressure issue is solved. One can vote as many times needed. When first vote was given under pressure, one can vote differently later. As many times is needed. Internet voting is not possible on the voting day, only before. That assures that when one has no possibilty to vote without pressure in internet, one has possibility to vote traditionally. Traditional vote overturnes e-vote.
This would also solve the bribe issue. And not to say there aren't issues. I feel the opportunity outweighs the risks personally as long as good practise in the system is followed. The biggest risk in my mind is blatant exploit by the person in power of the system, much like todays rigged elections.
Anonymous but verifiable/auditable online voting is a very hard problem that does not seem to be solved yet. How do you ensure that the remote voter gets one and only one vote while also being able to audit that the intended vote was recorded (it wasn't changed on the wire, in memory or on storage), without linking in any way the vote cast with the voter?
Ensuring that remote voting is not done under any form of duress or monitoring seems essentially unsolvable.
Incidentally, voting in state elections is compulsory in NSW so your example doesn't fit this case either way.
Was this sarcasm I missed? If not what is so horrible about allowing voting over the internet? To me the concept it brilliant if executed well. Especially for engaging the populace in non-compulsory voting countries where people might avoid casting their vote if it's going to take significant time commitment or simply they have other commitments such as work etc.