[kwlug-disc] Say No To Electronic Voting ...

[Mikalai Birukou]

>     The actual method of voting isn't the only aspect of Canadian
>     democracy that can be criticized or that could be improved. Just
>     ask Fair Vote Canada for their opinions about this. From my
>     perspective, the best democratic system I've seen is the Swiss model.
>
I wonder, if direct democracy, with more of internal sense of influence 
on things around you inoculates against coercion, builds up coercion 
resistance.

Also, the more important decisions in hands of people, the less god-like 
chairs are in the government, the less desire to occur said chairs.

On another hand, who needs to spend millions on bribing peasants, when 
first-past-the-post and gerrymandering give the result. No need for 
coercion.


> Foreign actors, which have been more active lately (e.g. US 
> presidentials in 2016, and Brexit) are indeed an additional threat.
> The main threat I see is politicians with despotic tendencies. We see 
> that lately in the US (complains that the system is rigged but does 
> not complain when he wins, attacking mail in ballots but not in states 
> that he may win, may refuse to concede if defeated in November, ...), 
> Russia (who just reset his term counter to stay on til the mid 2030s), 
> Hungary (froze parliament and ruling by decree), Italy, ...etc.

End-to-end verifiable process is what you want to protect against 
despots in power and external actors.

Paper, by the way, is not end-to-end verifiable. That is why we have 
USSR, Belarus, and today's Bolivia.


The tension is between having either an end-to-end verification or 
coercion resistance. Can have either one, but not both.

1) Ease of computer tech allows ease of manipulation. Thus, online 
voting can't be without end-to-end verification to uncover manipulation. 
Coercion resistance is not provided, similarly to mail vote.

2) Without ability to uncover precise manipulations, the best way is to 
make it difficult, i.e. going to paper. Observers and some trust in 
process is required.

<list note> Just want to note that this clean articulation is possible 
thanks to longer than tweets conversation. </list note>


Looking at stories about vote buying in western countries, I wonder if 
we are fighting the last war. Estonia's design against coercion ensures 
that there is no end-to-end verification, cause server counts in secret, 
opening itself to either permanent rule of existing party, or hacks from 
the outside.

Does size of population matter in coercion stories? And if it does, may 
be there can be a prescription for choosing and mixing voting methods.

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