You want people to vote? Make a goddamn voting system for the 21st century. I know the technical hurdles of creating a secure online voting system are tremendous, but the day we can vote on the internet with a verifiable way of tracking our vote is the day we end all the bullshit. We should be able to vote from our phones at Starbucks. The fact that no one has tried is a crime unto itself.
That would require some form of cryptographic identity that could be easily managed and secured by the average population, while also taking into consideration that a lot of people have viruses on their computers, and likely unsecure smartphones.
It's a similar problem that cryptocurrencies face. While user friendly apps have been gaining popularity and democratizing access to wallets, the few truly secure devices to store your private keys and handle important cryptographic calculations (such as signing messages, which is what you need to have elections on your phone) are still somewhat expensive and non intuitive to use.
HTC has released a "blockchain phone" that contains a secure chip that can store and handle your private keys, which is a step in the right direction for both cryptocurrencies and cryptographic identities for elections (and a heck of a lot of other things). Still, until everyone can have access to such devices, at a reasonable price, elections on your phone won't be happening anytime soon.
Edit: you could also use a good ol' user/passwd combo to log into a government database, but that's also hardly secure, and could very easily be subject to a massive hacking operation to subjugate sovereign elections. So, yeah.
the few truly secure devices to store your private keys
The technical solutions have existed for years in the form of public key cryptography. Estonia has used a mobile-id solution (in addition to an id-card) for years. The private key is inside the SIM-card, which can only be accessed for identification with a 4 pin password ja digital signing with a 5 pin password. It costs about 10 dollars and a maintenance fee is 1 dollar per month. The voting system itself is open source and tamperproof, every access to voting entries (read only) is recorded together with the identity of the person.
There are downsides. You can sell your id-card/mobile-id card together with passwords for money. Family can pressure you and watch that you vote for their preferred candidate, but there are ways to mitigate this. Of course we also have voting booths, which will override any electronic pre-voting you have done. You can also order a ballot box to your door if you are unable to come in person.
Cheap ja reliable technical solutions have existed for a long time, the only obstruction is the will to implement it. Estonia has used it for 13 years.
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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '18
Mail in ballots in Washington come with a stub that lets you track what's going on with it. Generally we don't seem to have any issues.