Re:To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software
by beat on Monday August 14, 2017 @01:27PM
(#15010515)
In Minnesota, honest counting is enforced by process. Any ballot handling, whether marked or unmarked, requires the presence of members of at least two different parties. At no point is a single person (or group from just one party) ever left alone with ballots.
We've had two full-on hand recounts at the state level in the past decade or so, and the final results where within a few hundred from the original count in each case, with three million votes cast. Good process solves a lot of problems.
It's true that it's easier to manipulate a terrible digital system but that doesn't mean pen and paper is safe.
Block chain technology would offer an open record that couldn't be manipulated, something paper does not.
I mean, I live in Denmark, one of the least corrupt countries in the world and we've had politicians caught changing votes with a pencil and an eraser during the count.