We are at a crossroads in the history of democracy, and this time
it concerns the practical matters of collecting the vote. Check out
the footage from what appears to be a congressional hearing:
I've been casually following the Diebold fiasco, but hadn't seen
this clip, which appears to involve unrelated companies and was
posted in March.
I can't help but think that electronic voting is a unique
application of security technology. Given the propensity for
corruption, only an open development program can deliver a tamper-
proof system. I believe I'm paraphrasing Bruce Schneier here when I
say that only a system whose workings are fully exposed can be
completely vetted (and therefore completely secure).
I flip back and forth between thinking that only a large
corporation with a philanthropic bent (Google?) could pull this off,
and suspecting that this is a problem that doesn't take a huge team.
Maybe a combination of the two is best -- like other standards
efforts, corporate sponsorship could bring the best talent to the
table, but the development and analysis could be handled by a small
group of smart people.
