On Sat, Jan 16, 1999 at 06:10:52PM +0000, Jim Dixon wrote:
>
> > There are actually two places where identity verification is done --
> > at voter registration time, and when the vote is actually cast.
>
> It's a lot more complicated than that in elections of significance.
[description of UK voting and some discussion]
> > So, while there are certainly some issues, there is no question that
> > a successful, fair, and efficient international election can be held
> > via email, and in fact, this can be considered a solved problem --
> > such voting systems are in production use, including (as the ISOC
> > example shows) election of officers of a Corporation.
>
> I don't disagree with this. The problem is identifying the voters.
> Mostly this is a problem in the registration phase.
Yes.
[...]
> Things would move much closer to practicality if rather than tying
> votes to the elusive individual you tied them to either domain names
> or IP address space.
The most straightforward thing is to tie them to an email address at
registration time. When the voter is identified at registration,
they must supply an email address as their voting address -- in
fact, registration is essentially the process of binding an
individual or an organization to an email address.
While some email headers can be spoofed easily, it is actually very
difficult to create a really good forgery, with complete delivery
information. And a public rollcall vote, with every vote posted on a
public web, would be extremely resistant to voter fraud -- easily as
strong as a physical mail based system
> Given the fact that anyone can have as many
> domain names as they are willing to pay for, it would make more sense
> to tie the vote to registered IP address space. This very roughly
> corresponds to the method used in generating the UK electoral roll,
> and has many of the same advantages. The IP address space is finite
> and at least the newer blocks allocated through the RIRs are tracked
> very carefully, so that there is an audit trail leading back from an
> IP address to whoever is responsible for the address block.
Oh -- are you looking for some kind of automatic binding of the form
"every individual who 'owns' an IP address gets a vote"?
> > I realize that you probably agree with this conclusion. I just
> > wanted to be sure that people didn't draw erroneous conclusions from
> > your statement.
> >
> > I believe it is true that Nominet uses online voting, doesn't it?
>
> Well, on arrival at the last Nominet AGM, you were given a name tag
> and then one large card per member. The card had YES and one colour
> on one side and NO and another bright colour on the other. Then you
> voted by raising your card and preferred colour. Low tech, high
> reliability.
Small-group in-person voting schemes are *amazingly* robust.
> However, ISPA UK uses electronic voting. We hold elections over the
> Net using single transferable voting (STV). We announce elections
> by broadcast to the membership. Members vote through a Web page.
> When a vote is cast we email the registered voter, verifying the vote
> as we understand it and giving him or her the chance to complain if
> there is an error. We also publish an up-to-date version of the vote
> on the Web as voting proceeds, listing each voter and how they have
> voted.
Is that software available?
> In consequence there is little chance for fraud. What we have found,
> however, is that voting is so easy that we have a problem with apathy.
>
> Before people had to take the day off work and go down to London to
> vote. Now they just use their browsers. Oddly enough, the voter
> turnout has fallen, and the degree to which elections involve the same
> old people has risen. Oh well ... #-}
Once people learn how truly boring all the ICANN stuff is going to
be I expect interest to dwindle dramatically.
--
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair "Do good, and you'll be
[EMAIL PROTECTED] lonesome." -- Mark Twain
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