Ask HN: Why can't we vote from our phones?

Posted by pcmaffey on Monday August 15, 2016 @08:51PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Here's an open question to the HN community, a technical challenge to a massive political problem:

Disregarding all political/bureaucratic reasons, what are the actual, technical challenges that prevent us* from voting online in public elections? Secure authentication? An active dB of citizens? Fraud prevention?

With the state of technology, it's time to turn tech in the public sector into a public good. Ensuring the basis of democracy (access to voting) seems like a low-hanging fruit. Why aren't we doing this? What will a secure online-voting system look like?

*Assuming USA, but could be applied to any democracy.

( 1 comment | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Why can't we vote from our phones? by misterrobot on Monday August 15, 2016 @08:59PM (#12294768)

I'd highly recommend this talk [0] which discusses the practical security issues with such a system. Estonia did something like this.

One interesting problem is that of deniability; in order to ensure that voters are not coerced, it is important for them to be able to deny who they voted for. This is directly at odds with the goal of verifying your vote after the fact.

[0] https://youtu.be/JY_pHvhE4os

[ Parent | on HN ]