Quote Originally Posted by renf View Post
The experience in Oregon suggest that we might switch to voting using the internet, smart phones and mail. Why do we continue to use the costly paper ballot system which is
prone to error? How much would local municipalities save by switching to a phone, internet, mail system with appropriate safeguards?
Well, I dunno. As one who follows the cybercrime and the hacking world fairly closely I am a big believer in the hard copy ballot. Even the optical scanners used to tally the votes, which fortunately are not web-networked [to my knowledge] are suspect and need to be periodically randomly sampled with physical counts. Likewise transmission of tallies if done digitally, even if encrypted, should require followup hard copy results by post or at least fax via not internet-connected devices and thereby double verified at the destination.

At this point in time it may be safe to say that every device everywhere that is web connected is hacked. Every major country in the world is cyber-arming and penetrating all they can. The explosion of millions of 'Internet of Things' aka IoT devices [thermostats, locks, lights, cameras one controls via smartphone] has complicated the mess. They are poorly constructed with easy to hack software.

Sure it take longer, but this is our most precious time when we the people hold the power for one day. So what's the hurry?