Security News > 2024 > March > On Secure Voting Systems

Rew Appel shepherded a public comment-signed by twenty election cybersecurity experts, including myself-on best practices for ballot marking devices and vote tabulation.

Hand-marked and hand-counted ballots remove the uncertainty introduced by use of electronic machinery and the ability of bad actors to exploit electronic vulnerabilities to remotely alter the results.

Some portion of voters mistakenly mark paper ballots in a manner that will not be counted in the way the voter intended, or which even voids the ballot.

Rather than assert that each component of the process can be made perfectly secure on its own, we believe the goal of each component of the elections process is to validate every other component.

Not only would it be more secure, but it would eliminate any lines at polling places since scanning only takes a few seconds and ballots can be filled out in parallel.

Once of have possession of the ballot it is easy to steam open the envelope and place your own ballot inside.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/on-secure-voting-systems.html