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To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

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Re: To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

#3

Post by danirod »

Electronic voting is a bad idea and I'd be suspicious on anyone trying to promote it.

How can you know that even if the source code for the voting machine is open, the voting machine is running the exact same source code? How can you know nobody has tampered the code the instance is running?

I'm glad my country is still running on paper ballots and glad we require voter ID.

Re: To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

#5

Post by fredley »

alkoumpa wrote: post #2

to protect voting, audit your software/system extensively. Openssh is open-source and we all know the story..

But how can I (a voter), audit it in the voting booth? How can I verify that the extensively audited software is actually running on the machine in front of me?

Re: To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

#6

Post by giancarlostoro »

danirod wrote: post #3

Electronic voting is a bad idea and I'd be suspicious on anyone trying to promote it. How can you know that even if the source code for the voting machine is open, the voting machine is running the exact same source code? How can you know nobody has tampered the code the instance is running? I'm glad my country is still running on paper ballots and glad we require voter ID.

I agree with you entirely. There is no absolute way that we know of to truly know the code running is the exact code on GitHub. You can fake that it is in many ways, I don't see people running shell commands on the software before and after they vote to make sure it's the correct software. Even IF that software remains uncompromised, who owns the database? Who stops them from-

Way too many factors...

Re: To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

#7

Post by Sholmesy »

fredley wrote: post #5
alkoumpa wrote: post #2

to protect voting, audit your software/system extensively. Openssh is open-source and we all know the story..

But how can I (a voter), audit it in the voting booth? How can I verify that the extensively audited software is actually running on the machine in front of me?

You can't. Especially at scale (every person validating the software before voting). Paper ballots with a anonymised ledger of votes placed is, in my opinion, the best method.

Re: To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

#8

Post by fredley »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #6
danirod wrote: post #3

Electronic voting is a bad idea and I'd be suspicious on anyone trying to promote it. How can you know that even if the source code for the voting machine is open, the voting machine is running the exact same source code? How can you know nobody has tampered the code the instance is running? I'm glad my country is still running on paper ballots and glad we require voter ID.

I agree with you entirely. There is no absolute way that we know of to truly know the code running is the exact code on GitHub. You can fake that it is in many ways, I don't see people running shell commands on the software before and after they vote to make sure it's the correct software. Even IF that software remains uncompromised, who owns the database? Who stops them from- Way too many factors...

On top of this, we all know that if it was implemented as well as physically possible, there would still be vectors for attack. However, if current voting machine trials are anything to go by, it's usually implemented extremely poorly.

Re: To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

#9

Post by mtgx »

fredley wrote: post #5
alkoumpa wrote: post #2

to protect voting, audit your software/system extensively. Openssh is open-source and we all know the story..

But how can I (a voter), audit it in the voting booth? How can I verify that the extensively audited software is actually running on the machine in front of me?

You can't. And even if the software is open source, it doesn't guarantee that state or election officials will set aside budgets to deploy such patches swiftly, or even care to deploy them.

Re: To Protect Voting, Use Open-Source Software

#10

Post by fredley »

Sholmesy wrote: post #7
fredley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how can I (a voter), audit it in the voting booth? How can I verify that the extensively audited software is actually running on the machine in front of me?

You can't. Especially at scale (every person validating the software before voting). Paper ballots with a anonymised ledger of votes placed is, in my opinion, the best method.

Paper doesn't scale well, attacks on paper are extremely difficult to scale well, which is why paper is a good system for voting.
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