Live data from Hacker News

Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

utahpolicy.com

61–70 of 220 posts

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#61
post #21

Paper ballots, no machines and especially no machines connected to the internet...if we were able to get that crazy bug into Iranian nuclear reactors without direct transfer from Internet, then you can bet North Korea, Russia, Israel, and China will pour billions to do the same thing. Voting ID cards too, though I admit I don’t know enough about that. Even if it costs billions to get it done, confidence in fair and f…

The first is a good idea, but the second is not. Voter ID cards are historically used to make it harder to vote and thus compromise elections. In person fraud is very uncommon, and it would be very difficult for a foreign government to pull off a large scale interference without being detected. After all, we struggle to get people to show up to vote once already! The idea of mass ballot fraud seems difficult to count…

Voter ID laws would be OK if they were passed along with funding to provide Voting IDs to citizens. Somehow, they never are... (generally speaking, in the US)

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#62
post #55
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The hysteria around double or fraudulent voting is crazy. You’d need thousands of people doing it in most districts to have any impact, and that would get obvious really bloody quickly. I think this is a pretty good example of what I find to be the typical of an American practice of cutting off their own nose to spite their face. [1] Americans absolutely hate the idea of freeloaders or someone getting somethin…

> The hysteria around double or fraudulent voting is crazy. And yet numerous other countries think it’s a worthwhile endeavor. You could probably get away without ever locking your front door, but why would you when the added security is so easy to implement? Even Mexico has cracked this nut, I think we could too.

I think the current state of US politics all but guarantees that any attempt to implement voter ID cards would result in attempts to lower turnout. Every implementation would be done at the state level, and a bunch of states have already been seen doing anything they can to thwart turnout to the opposing party.

If such an ID scheme were laid out fairly in the constitution, I think the US could do it fairly. But today? It'll never happen.

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Drupal would be better for government websites.

I think the point was that you get attempts on /wp-admin.php even if you're not running wordpress at all. I mean, my personal blog is a static collection of HTML pages and I still see /wp-admin.php in logs. In fact, I've long wondered whether this isn't a great opportunity; I'd like to make a script that went through logs and got every IP trying to access such a path, and adds those IPs to a blacklist that gets dropp…

That's called fail2ban, and you're describing a custom filter.

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#64
post #55
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The hysteria around double or fraudulent voting is crazy. You’d need thousands of people doing it in most districts to have any impact, and that would get obvious really bloody quickly. I think this is a pretty good example of what I find to be the typical of an American practice of cutting off their own nose to spite their face. [1] Americans absolutely hate the idea of freeloaders or someone getting somethin…

> The hysteria around double or fraudulent voting is crazy. And yet numerous other countries think it’s a worthwhile endeavor. You could probably get away without ever locking your front door, but why would you when the added security is so easy to implement? Even Mexico has cracked this nut, I think we could too.

Generally these are countries where one of the following is true:

1. The ID in question is nationally compulsory to carry out most day-to-day tasks, and so no one is disenfranchised by having to show it. In the US, on the other hand, there are lots of people without any form of ID card

2. The country has a history of large-scale in-person voter fraud.

In Mexico, both of these things happen to be the case.

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#67
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Voter ID cards are historically used to make it harder to vote Is that the case in the numerous other countries that require voter ID? I find it funny how we always use “but every other country does it!” when talking about things the US should adopt (e.g., the metric system, socialized healthcare), but that’s apparently not a good reason when talking about voter ID. Even countries with far poorer populations than o…

I have no idea why this has become a right vs left, polarized issue.

This might be my political bubble speaking, but the vast, vast majority of voter suppression stories I've seen have been Republican legislatures trying to deprive the Democratic party of votes.

But even if that's not the case, it stands to reason it'll end up being a left/right thing, because it's the right trying to deprive the left of a vote, or vice versa. The two party system guarantees it.

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#68
post #21

Paper ballots, no machines and especially no machines connected to the internet...if we were able to get that crazy bug into Iranian nuclear reactors without direct transfer from Internet, then you can bet North Korea, Russia, Israel, and China will pour billions to do the same thing. Voting ID cards too, though I admit I don’t know enough about that. Even if it costs billions to get it done, confidence in fair and f…

The first is a good idea, but the second is not. Voter ID cards are historically used to make it harder to vote and thus compromise elections. In person fraud is very uncommon, and it would be very difficult for a foreign government to pull off a large scale interference without being detected. After all, we struggle to get people to show up to vote once already! The idea of mass ballot fraud seems difficult to count…

Voting requires ID in almost every other western democracy, including Canada. The rest of the world see it as very reasonable to identify yourself at a polling station. It's odd that this is so contentious in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_ID_laws

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#69
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first is a good idea, but the second is not. Voter ID cards are historically used to make it harder to vote and thus compromise elections. In person fraud is very uncommon, and it would be very difficult for a foreign government to pull off a large scale interference without being detected. After all, we struggle to get people to show up to vote once already! The idea of mass ballot fraud seems difficult to count…

> Voter ID cards are historically used to make it harder to vote Is that the case in the numerous other countries that require voter ID? I find it funny how we always use “but every other country does it!” when talking about things the US should adopt (e.g., the metric system, socialized healthcare), but that’s apparently not a good reason when talking about voter ID. Even countries with far poorer populations than o…

"Is that the case in the numerous other countries that require voter ID?"

Other countries that require ID to vote generally have an ID card system separate from the driving of vehicles, and more people hold passports. Consequently, a larger percentage of the population has a state ID readily at hand. Yes, in the USA states might offer an non-driver’s-license ID card, but the system is that this is a choice, not a must, while in other countries everyone needs to carry some form of ID at all time.

Re: Utah voting system fending off 1B hacking attempts per day

#70
post #21

Paper ballots, no machines and especially no machines connected to the internet...if we were able to get that crazy bug into Iranian nuclear reactors without direct transfer from Internet, then you can bet North Korea, Russia, Israel, and China will pour billions to do the same thing. Voting ID cards too, though I admit I don’t know enough about that. Even if it costs billions to get it done, confidence in fair and f…

The first is a good idea, but the second is not. Voter ID cards are historically used to make it harder to vote and thus compromise elections. In person fraud is very uncommon, and it would be very difficult for a foreign government to pull off a large scale interference without being detected. After all, we struggle to get people to show up to vote once already! The idea of mass ballot fraud seems difficult to count…

What about finger paint, like most other countries use?

You just simply get an unwashable ink on your thumb. It does a few things. It shows you voted already. Also, puts a little bit of social pressure on people you see who don't have the mark.

Post reply on HN