issuing smartcards is likely to be cheap [Was: electronic ballots]

[Heyman, Michael]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Allen Simpson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Subject: Re: electronic ballots
> [SNIP much]
> > 
> > It seems that something like a smartcard would be the best scheme. 
> 
> Not likely.  Voting is very different from banking transactions.  And 
> issuing smartcards with special software for voting is likely to be 
> prohibitively expensive.
> 
Hmmm, I have a "voter registration card" and I believe that is the case
across the USA. Current smartcards are not very protective of their private
data and I think the security requirements for vote-only cards would be even
less stringent. Finally, those folks at the MIT Media lab are printing
digital circuits onto plastic using "semiconductor ink".

>From <http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/nov00/mihm.asp>

    Jacobson's solution: a "desktop fab" able to print circuits 
    directly on a substrate, such as plastic, without the expense 
    and hassle of a multibillion-dollar manufacturing facility. 
    Jacobson, head of the Printed PC Group at MIT's Media Lab, 
    has already managed to print rudimentary but working transistors 
    using an "ink" consisting of nanometer-sized semiconductor 
    particles. "Our goal is to follow the trajectory silicon took, 
    and start printing processors with perhaps several hundred 
    transistors, moving to thousands and then more," says Jacobson. 
    "We should be able to demonstrate a very simple processor in 
    the next 12 to 18 months." 

What is too costly today may cost zero extra in a year or too.

Just don't ask me to remember where I placed my voter registration card :-)

-Michael Heyman