From: Arun Mehta <amehta@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 04:31:13 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Publicly Verifiable Anonymous Voting System
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19960729162635.002edd50@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 08:53 27/07/96 -0700, JonWienk@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>Here is the how the voting system works.
>
>1.  All voting information (public keys, ballots, ballot signatures, etc.) is 
>publicly available via a Web site or other similar means, and
can be downloaded 
...

One problem with such a system is sheer complexity. Even an
illiterate person must be convinced of the transparency of the
system, i.e. that his/her vote "counts". In the conventional
system, where you mark a piece of paper that goes into a locked
box watched over by reps of the rival parties, which you can
subsequently view being opened and processed, you intuitively
understand how the system works. This was one of our arguments
(not, admittedly, our strongest) against electronic voting when
they sought to introduce it  in 1989 for the Indian federal
elections -- further details on http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/evmsunob.htm

Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta@cpsr.org
http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/  finger amehta@cerfnet.com for public key