🚀 go-pugleaf

[ mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse) writes in article <1992Nov7.084403.14167@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>: ]
>
>In article <1992Nov6.161403.8253@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>, peta@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (Peter Whaite) writes:
>[stuff about democracy in ancient Greece]
>
>> [I]t may be that the development of communication technolgy is going
>> to make "direct democracy" viable again.  [...]  However its going to
>> be interesting, in particular, how can one guarantee the integrity of
>> an electronic vote collecting/counting system that is continental in
>> extent?
>
>How can one guarantee the integrity of a non-electronic vote
>collecting/counting system that is continental in extent?

Yep.  It can be done, if everyone has some computing device that
can get information across some network (like the telephone).

This really isn't the forum for discussing cryptography but there
are practical and secure voting schemes around.  These schemes
usually assume that no more than 1/3 of the voters will try to
collaborate to "fix" the election and that all voters will vote
(possibly a blank vote).  Under these simple restrictions,
you can garantee that:

1) noone voted more than once.

2) that there are no ambiguus votes.  An ambiguus vote would
   look like "I vote like <person's name>".  There are
   voting schemes that allow such votes!

3) NOBODY can read your ballot.  Not even the entity tallying the votes!

4) You get a proof that your vote has been registered.

5) You get a proof that the result is correct.
   Some schemes don't tell you how many votes were cast on each
   option but only tell you which option won and proove it.

The problem (there has to be a problem) is that you can't do
this manually.  Everyone must have access to a secure computer
to handle the complex computations and exchanges of information.
An IBM-PC would do fine or one could use smartcards (credit card-size
computers) and a network of voting booths that could look like the
ATMs we are familiar with.

Back to your regularly scheduled flame.

--
      Philippe Hebrais   hebrais@mirkwood.cam.org
   Voix: (514)731-9146   uunet!philmtl!altitude!mirkwood!hebrais