Well, I think the SS# is pretty lousy, as you can steal other people's numbers and vote as them, and it's not really anonymous, and it has no Hamming distance / error tolerance against typos etc. The same thing can be accomplished in various ways, though, so it's not that big of a deal and more of an administrative hassle. As long as people spell their names differently and have different data in the DMV vs. SS vs. IRS vs. whatever databases the general dirtiness of voter data is a perhaps bigger problem. Still, a well-designed system would make it much harder for someone to typo your name and you finding out later that the name on your voter registration doesn't match your name on your DL. Regardless, the first step has to be a way to vet the voters beforehand and making sure only eligible voters can vote, and that they can vote only once. Intimidation and vote buying is always a problem, but if there's no way for the intimidator or vote-buyer to check that you really did what you were told, it lessens the impact. Sure, I'll take $100 to vote for Nader, but I can then proceed to vote whichever way I want because the person giving me money has no way to check what I really did. If you can go back later and check that your votes were counted correctly, the intimidator or vote-buyer can look over your shoulder and make sure you did what you were supposed to. You can of course get around this by only being able to check your vote in a controlled environment where an officer can make sure nobody's following you or making you take pictures of the screen or such.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-10-28 08:50 pm (UTC)Intimidation and vote buying is always a problem, but if there's no way for the intimidator or vote-buyer to check that you really did what you were told, it lessens the impact. Sure, I'll take $100 to vote for Nader, but I can then proceed to vote whichever way I want because the person giving me money has no way to check what I really did.
If you can go back later and check that your votes were counted correctly, the intimidator or vote-buyer can look over your shoulder and make sure you did what you were supposed to. You can of course get around this by only being able to check your vote in a controlled environment where an officer can make sure nobody's following you or making you take pictures of the screen or such.