Canada Considering Online Voting In Elections 324
ehud42 writes "Slashdot readers generally agree that voting machines such as those from Diebold are a bad idea. Well, what about online voting? That is what the Vancouver Sun is reporting. Given that voter turnout in our most recent election was the worst on record, Elections Canada is kicking around the idea of allowing voters to register online, update registration information online, and maybe even vote online."
Votes can be coerced with guns. (Score:5, Interesting)
In any election that lets people vote from anywhere, votes can be coerced with a gun, and people can show their actual vote to whatever corrupt mafioso wants to force their vote. These things are not possible (or at least they're more difficult) if the only places to vote are properly run, properly secure polling places.
Re:Poorest Turnout...... (Score:2, Interesting)
Basically, the conservatives held an election because they wanted a majority
Ah, so they're like...every government in our history? Every government heads into an election hoping for a majority (though some are more delusional regarding their odds than others). The grandparent complains that:
the "last election" came to be from the government at the time being dissolved by the Governor General
but in fact this is what happens prior to every single election, and what will continue to happen for the foreseeable future. The grandparent is also points out that the election was held 'early', however given that the current Prime Minister introduced the law which demands fixed election dates, and included in it a provision in which the PM can call an election at will, the law differs rather significantly from the American system. There's also a provision whereby a minority government (as is the case with the three most recent governments) can be toppled by the opposition parties.
In other words, the law is silly.
Re:Stick em up! Your money or your candidate. (Score:4, Interesting)
The ATM company and the voting machine company are effectively different companies. Diebold, which makes ATMs, bought a company called Global Election Systems in 2001. GES is the company that makes voting machines. Although GES is now owned by Diebold, it remains a separate division, with its own management and engineers. The technology is GES technology. It is true that if Diebold wanted to badly enough they could impose changes on the voting machine division, but it can be hard even for an honest company to bring itself to crack down on a sleazy subsidiary, very likely at the cost of damaging the market for the subsidiary and increasing the likelihood of lawsuits.
Re:What could possibly go wrong? (Score:3, Interesting)
I may not be quoting you, but I'm certainly paraphrasing you. You're going on and on about how awesome and perfect Canada is and how there's no way such an incredible country could have even the slightest trouble with this in every post of yours and completely ignoring both the potential and inevitable problems of online voting.
I can only hope that if they go through with this, whatever solution they come up with is more effective than just mindless nationalism.
Re:Secret Ballot is Essential (Score:2, Interesting)
You have to register once (only once) in a controlled location, where somebody makes sure you're not videoing it and there's nobody watching over your shoulder.
When you register, you decide (or the system randomly decides and tells you) whether your vote should be a Forward Vote or an Backwards Vote. Only you know whether your vote is Forward Vote or a Backwards Vote, and it will never be shown to you when you go to vote online, or anywhere outside the secure booth where you registered.
When you vote online, you have the option of casting a vote for a candidate or against them. A vote for someone increases their vote by one, and a vote against them decreases their vote by one. But if you have a Backwards Vote, a vote for would decrease their total, while a vote against would increase it.
If someone tries to bribe or intimidate you to vote a certain way, they have no way of knowing whether they are forcing you to vote for their favourite candidate or against them. The same goes for malware on your client or between the client and the server: Since the information about whether your vote is Forward or Backward is only stored on the central server, the attacker only has a 50% chance of getting the outcome they want, cancelled out by a 50% chance of shooting themselves in the foot.
Re:As a Canadian let me be the first to say (Score:4, Interesting)
That does assume that you at least have a good idea who the candidates are and what policies they represent. I'd be in favor of making voting harder, such as you have to write in a name of the candidate you are voting for or something like that, and write an essay on why you are voting for them (just kidding about the essay...). If you can't write your candidate's name then you're not fit to vote. What purpose is served by people voting by checking a random box cause they have no clue about any of the candidates anyway and they are just voting because you are "supposed to", or maybe voting for one whose name seems a bit more familiar than the others. I bet a lot more people do than than we think, or dare admit.
In any case, I do agree with your point that making voting slightly easier will not make much difference and its not worth the risk. It won't be that much easier anyway, you still have to register online and deal with remembering passwords and dozen authentication questions and all that.
Re:As another Canadian let me be the second to say (Score:1, Interesting)
Online voting will increase the number of voters significantly.
The only problem with online voting for Canada is how to reduce the number of votes to below 100%.