Live data from Hacker News

CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

cisa.gov

31–40 of 211 posts

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#31

Eight states[0] still have electronic voting systems without paper backups. They're un-auditable. I'm not going to weigh in on the current politics of this situation, but US Election security is awful, now, and since at least 2000. I actually did my degree thesis on designing electronic voting systems (and built one), and ultimately concluded it was impossible to make them fully secure. The best you can do is paper b…

Do you have a copy of your thesis online? I’d be curious to learn more.

Sorry no, my college only publishes Master's and PhD level thesis.

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#32

Eight states[0] still have electronic voting systems without paper backups. They're un-auditable. I'm not going to weigh in on the current politics of this situation, but US Election security is awful, now, and since at least 2000. I actually did my degree thesis on designing electronic voting systems (and built one), and ultimately concluded it was impossible to make them fully secure. The best you can do is paper b…

What’s your thinking on the “request” process of mail-in ballots? To me, it’s wild to think all one needs to request a ballot is a name, address and ssn... and on top of all of that, you can get the ballot sent to a different address...

To me it’s wild that anyone would want voting to be anything but universal. Shouldn’t they send ballots to every person legally allowed to vote?

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#33
post #9

No chain of custody, closed source voting machines, ballots sent to people who didn't ask for them based on known-bad voter rolls...but sure, I'll just take some random government agency's word for it.

Better than taking some Hacker News rando's blanket dismissal of the work of thousands of poll workers across the country.

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#35

Eight states[0] still have electronic voting systems without paper backups. They're un-auditable. I'm not going to weigh in on the current politics of this situation, but US Election security is awful, now, and since at least 2000. I actually did my degree thesis on designing electronic voting systems (and built one), and ultimately concluded it was impossible to make them fully secure. The best you can do is paper b…

I don't think you can avoid the politics of the situation because when it comes to presidential candidates, when the R candidate wins, much will be made of how broken the system is, from vulnerabilities in voting machines to fatal flaws in the Constitution itself (viz., the Electoral College). When the D candidate wins, we are assured that election security is airtight, there's no evidence of significant irregularities, and "the system works".

This has nothing to do with the factuality or legitimacy of flaws in the system -- in short, yes, I believe you that there are severe problems with the apparatus we use to conduct elections, but there is strong pressure to ignore and even deny these problems, because doing so helps solve the bigger, more important problem of getting Trump out of office. I don't want Trump in office, but I cannot admit to any legitimacy to the claims of vote irregularity in the 2020 election, even theoretically based on your expertise because even if it were true, it would be a "fact that gives power to the enemy" and thus must be treated as a falsehood. That's why if you post about it on Twitter, a little note will be attached to your tweet with a link that says the U.S. elections were perfectly conducted with no chance of fraud.

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#36

https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

I don’t understand the connection to the OP url

The possible connection I see: who watches the watchers? What's the difference in trusting CISA vs PRISM?

I have no ill intent, and I find all of this stuff distressing.

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#37
post #16

Eight states[0] still have electronic voting systems without paper backups. They're un-auditable. I'm not going to weigh in on the current politics of this situation, but US Election security is awful, now, and since at least 2000. I actually did my degree thesis on designing electronic voting systems (and built one), and ultimately concluded it was impossible to make them fully secure. The best you can do is paper b…

I'm fully for a fast electronic count for preliminary results, that are then hand-recounted for the formal validation and final results (up to a month later).

yeah I just don't understand the downside of having a paper backup just in case. Is it the cost? The US already spends a ton on election, what is an extra paper print gonna do?

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s your thinking on the “request” process of mail-in ballots? To me, it’s wild to think all one needs to request a ballot is a name, address and ssn... and on top of all of that, you can get the ballot sent to a different address...

To me it’s wild that anyone would want voting to be anything but universal. Shouldn’t they send ballots to every person legally allowed to vote?

Riiiiight. Just look at how districts are gerrymandered to realize this is not what politicians of either side want.

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#39

Eight states[0] still have electronic voting systems without paper backups. They're un-auditable. I'm not going to weigh in on the current politics of this situation, but US Election security is awful, now, and since at least 2000. I actually did my degree thesis on designing electronic voting systems (and built one), and ultimately concluded it was impossible to make them fully secure. The best you can do is paper b…

To be fair, that's very true for many places. Although I would also argue that there are many places (not referring to US) where electronic voting is safer than paper ballots purely because politicians know how to hire gangsters to blow up trucks carrying votes or trace and blackmail voters due to corrupt officials.

Re: CISA: The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history

#40

Eight states[0] still have electronic voting systems without paper backups. They're un-auditable. I'm not going to weigh in on the current politics of this situation, but US Election security is awful, now, and since at least 2000. I actually did my degree thesis on designing electronic voting systems (and built one), and ultimately concluded it was impossible to make them fully secure. The best you can do is paper b…

I'm not fully familiar with American politics, but out of those states the only that comes close to mattering in terms of EC outcome (this election) was Texas I think? And even then, it's unclear if it was that close considering most of the polling was off by 3-4 points. Then again some other states were spot on, so we'll never know if that was the case for Texas or if they were hacked.
Post reply on HN