[IP] Encryption provides new way to do secure voting - well maybe djf
http://news.com.com/High+hopes+for+unscrambling+the+vote/2100-1028_3
-5227789.html
High hopes for unscrambling the vote
June 8, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh
PISCATAWAY, N.J.--Computer scientists gathered here recently and bobbed
their heads into an odd-looking contraption for a glimpse of emerging
technology that might just help make the digital world safer for
democracy.
Beneath the viridian green glow of a viewfinder flowed an inch-wide
strip of paper that inventor David Chaum says will prove with
mathematical rigor whether a vote cast on a computer in a ballot box
has been tampered with after the fact.
The system was demonstrated publicly for the first time at a Rutgers
University voting conference late last month. The technology builds on
the increasingly popular notion that computerized voting machines need
to leave behind a paper trail to safeguard against fraud--something
that's lacking in most current models and the subject of furious
debate.
News.context
Chaum has raised the concept to an entirely new level, according to
electronic-voting experts, by including breakthrough cryptographic
techniques that will provide instant feedback on irregularities while
ensuring voter anonymity. While still a clunky prototype, the system
could represent the next evolutionary step in improving the security
and reliability of the voting process, some believe.
"The math is fine," said Ron Rivest, a professor of computer science at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-creator of the
popular RSA encryption algorithm. "I view this as the early days of the
practical applications...The paradigm is a new and interesting one. I'm
optimistic."
Chaum is not alone among researchers vying to better voting's state of
the art. Fed up with what they view as antediluvian punched cards and
mechanical lever systems--and with an eye to the problems of the 2000
Florida recount--scientists are borrowing from decades of academic work
to invent systems that are probably secure against malfeasance. Their
inventions are also designed to one-up current electronic voting
machines that have limited audit capabilities and may include bugs that
surreptitiously alter vote totals.
[...remainder snipped...]
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