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Re:Software to capture votes in upcoming German national ele... by matt4077 on Thursday September 07, 2017 @11:43AM (#15192873)
Note that this isn't a system running in the voting booth. All votes are cast on paper ballots. The software is just for tabulating the results and maybe maintenance of the voting rolls.

It's obviously a terrible situation, but I'm somewhat confident that you couldn't actually throw the election even with complete access. I, for example, always stop by at a polling place a friend volunteers at after the polls are closed and watch them count the ballots. Everyone is free to observe, and you can get as close as you could want, and count the ballots yourself.

There are only a few hundred voters per precinct, so any person can, if they want, verify their (or another) precinct's results end-to-end: count some or all the ballots, then compare with the results posted online.

The volunteers manning the polling places are also incredibly dedicated and professional. I'm pretty sure that at least one of them also verifies the data. It's a diverse crowd (not, for example, party officials or public servants), which makes it practically impossible to get their buy-in to any corruption.

Re:Software to capture votes in upcoming German national ele... by germanier on Thursday September 07, 2017 @12:03PM (#15193058)
> and you can get as close as you could want, and count the ballots yourself

It usually is no problem if they do but an outside observer should not touch the ballots themselves and is not allowed to. They can look closely though which gives them the same degree of certainty.

Re:Software to capture votes in upcoming German national ele... by fanalin on Thursday September 07, 2017 @12:39PM (#15193458)
One more info: this software is just used for the preliminary results, not for the final results.

The software for the final results is entirely different and seems to be much more secure.

Re:Software to capture votes in upcoming German national ele... by germanier on Thursday September 07, 2017 @12:56PM (#15193666)
Knowing how German government offices operate, the "software" for the final results is likely sending letters stamped with an official seal by post and calculating the result manually/with very low-tech software.
Re:Software to capture votes in upcoming German national ele... by dx034 on Thursday September 07, 2017 @03:58PM (#15195171)
Which is how election results should be handled. Sealed letters are cheap and extremely hard to forge.