When Hacking is an Act of Patriotism

No, not talking about Stuxnet, given especially that we don’t even know which country sent it—although it might turn out to be a service to humanity.  No, I am talking about how the D.C. Board of Elections wanted to try an experiment in online voting.  Someone thought it would be possible to make that system “hack proof.”  Which is complete idiocy.

There is no such thing as hacker proof anything.  Nothing at all.  I can guarantee you that every computer in the world can be hacked, so long as the hacker can get access to it.  But these idiots were determined to give it a shot, so they tried a one week experiment where they put the system online and told hackers to go at it.  Mind you, no real votes were being cast; they just wanted to see if anyone could hack it.

Within a few days someone managed to make it so that every time you cast a vote, the University of Michigan fight song played.

Honestly, I think the city of Washington, D.C. should ask the hacker to come forward and give him a medal.  He or she showed all of them it was a waste of time to put voting online.

Now if only they could get equally smart about electronic voting machines.  Hey, any hackers want to harmlessly hack their system just to show how vulnerable it is?  Like making it play a song after every vote is a perfect example of patriotic hacking.  Someone needs to show these people you can’t trust these machines.

By the way, what is my solution?  I mean I don’t want to eliminate electronic voting machines, but I want them secure.

Okay the real problem here is anonymous voting.  Back at the founding everyone voted openly.  People think this was abolished because of fears that others would try to bully you into voting one way or the other—especially by employers.  The truth is more checkered.  The anonymous voting system was first introduced as one of a myriad number of ways black people would be deprived of the vote in the South.  It allowed their votes to be thrown out, while frustrating efforts to prove that this had happened.  Now while the origins were racist and abusive, it didn’t mean it had to continue for that reason, and concerns about pressure have some validity.  So it’s a dilemma.  Eliminate anonymous voting and introduce pressure, or keep it and make it easier to fix elections.

But we don’t actually have to choose.  With electronic voting and the internet, it is now easy to do this.

First, give each voter a special voter identification number.  This is not to be used for anything but voting—I mean pass a law saying no one can ask you what it is, outlawing discrimination based on whether you reveal it or not, etc.

Then they vote and when they do they get a receipt.

Then on each state’s website, they allow you to look up your voter identification number and see what the system says you voted for.

So, its anonymous to the world, but not to you.  So then if there is some accusation of funny business, each voter can say, “I am number X, and I voted for Y and Z, but it said I voted for A and B.”

Anyway, that’s my idea, for what its worth.