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It could be perfectly secure. Simply snail-mail a 128 bit one-time key pad to every voter.

After the vote, the Government releases the results as a mapping of [one-time-pad -> vote] for everyone to verify their vote.

Anyway for further reading, this is a good piece on the issue: http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/11/3479170/why-cant-you-vote...

Edit: When you voted you would need to post your ssn also for verification that you are the one using your one-time key-pad, etc.




> Anyway for further reading, this is a good piece on the issue: http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/11/3479170/why-cant-you-vote...

I immediately felt compelled to text-search for "Estonia" and was pleased to see it was covered.


How to you prevent the one time pad from getting intercepted in the mail? If one was intercepted, the person could report it, but then what prevents a nefarious third-party from reporting yours as stolen close enough to the election that you won't get a replacement in time?

Maybe you could pick up your one time pad in person at any US Post Office in the days or weeks preceding the election. You'd have to show valid government issued ID to pick up your sealed one time pad.


Aren't "verifiable voting" and "private voting" mutually exclusive? If I can verify my vote than I can also be forced to reveal my vote to a third party who is trying to coerce me to vote a certain way, or to purchase my vote.


> Aren't "verifiable voting" and "private voting" mutually exclusive?

No.

> If I can verify my vote than I can also be forced to reveal my vote to a third party who is trying to coerce me to vote a certain way, or to purchase my vote.

Untrue. You can only be forced to do so if the third party has a way of confirming that the verification information you've given them is correct for your vote.


Not if each person holds the key to their own vote. You can only verify your own vote with your key even though the results are public.

If you could verify everyone's vote, then you'd be correct.


I believe homomorphic encryption would address this.


> Simply snail-mail a 128 bit one-time key pad to every voter.

Cool. Who do you think would pay me the most for my pad?




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