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Comment by alex_young | Hacker News Reader

Why can't PKI be used?

If I sign a vote with my private key, and my public key is used exactly once, and is registered with the electoral body, and a list is printed of signed votes by candidate, I can validate that my key was used to sign a vote for the person / issue I voted for, and we can also know that everyone only voted once.

Key distribution could be based on the current registration system we have in place now, and you could use the key they send you to change your key pair so the state can't forge your vote. One could even automate this, even with an open source app we could all inspect.

It seems conceptually simple.

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1. Whoever issued you the key pair can know which vote is yours.

2. Someone can coerce you to vote a specific way by forcing you to provide them with your private key.

1. Can’t the state already know who voted for what right now? That seems like a nonissue.

2. Someone can also force you to give them your mail in ballot. How is this different?

> Can’t the state already know who voted for what right now? That seems like a nonissue.

No. That is one of the most fundamental features of our system. In the secrecy of the voting booth, you can make your voice heard with no consequences to you.

And they can flip the vote as soon as you leave the polling booth, or not even record it, and you'll never know. Just "trust the system"

You can actually put the ballot in the box. You or someone you trust can stay as an observer until the voting is done. You or someone you trust can watch as the ballots are removed from the voting box and counted.

I think it has been recommended before, if you want to see this, sign up to be a poll observer. You will get to see the whole process.

https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud

Thousands of issues of voter fraud, and these are only the instances where they got caught. Polling officials are usually the ones that are responsible for mass voter manipulation, just look at what happened in Iowa and Georgia.

Poll watchers are appointed by political parties. It is not something anyone can sign up for and get to do. Monitors also do not directly prevent electoral fraud.

> It is not something anyone can sign up for and get to do.

Looks like you've found the problem. Of course you don't get the benefits of a public election if the election isn't public.

Yet I'm being downvoted for pointing it out

The joy of discussing local to statewide policies on an international forum.

No they can not. I put my ballot in a locked box filled with other ballots. It's not like I hand my ballot to a person and ask them to please record my vote.

A locked box that is counted by who exactly and then those figures are sent were and verified by who?

Local community members with representatives from all major parties present usually.

The answers to all these questions are known and public when I vote. I know who counts them, where the figures are sent and who verifies them.

1. The way in-person voting works where I live, no. Mail-in ballots naturally require trust that the inner envelope will not be correlated with the outer envelope.

2. It's not, aside from that it is more easily automated. "Helping" certain voters fill out their mail-in ballots is already an easy way to manipulate an election.

So how does my grandmother, who has zero technology in her life, sign with her private key?

Voting needs to be available to all voters - we need to avoid putting in a barrier the would turn elections into "all voters who have smartphones".

How many people who aren't programmers or mathematicians will trust this?

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