Re Is Blockchain Technology the Future of Voting?

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Justin D'Onofrio" <justin.donofrio () me com>
> Date: August 14, 2018 at 9:38:47 PM GMT+9
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Is Blockchain Technology the Future of Voting?
>
> Hi Dave,
>
> For IP, if you will:
>
> I feel that this is a great case of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines. It’s not the future of voting, and if it were, the 
> Voatz case is not it.
>
> Few of many cases in point around the company and tech:
>
> https://mobile.twitter.com/GossiTheDog/status/1026603800365330432
>
> and
>
> https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/11/voatz-a-tale-of-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-idea
>
> Hope you’re enjoying Japan!
>
> ~ Justin D
>
>
> > On Aug 14, 2018, at 6:19 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> > > Date: August 14, 2018 at 6:13:03 PM GMT+9
> > > To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> > > Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Is Blockchain Technology the Future of Voting?
> > > Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
> > >
> > > [Note:  This item comes from friend Geoff Goodfellow.  DLH]
> > >
> > > Is Blockchain Technology the Future of Voting?
> > > Election officials are looking at ways to bolster security before the November midterms.
> > > By Nafeesa Syeed
> > > Aug 10 2018
> > > <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-10/is-blockchain-technology-the-future-of-voting>
> > >
> > > In Mac Warner’s 23 years in the U.S. Army, he experienced firsthand the hurdles of voting from abroad. “On a 
> > > hillside in Afghanistan, it’s hard to get mail, it’s hard to ship it out,” he says.
> > >
> > > As West Virginia’s secretary of state, Warner wants to help deployed service members to more easily cast a 
> > > ballot—only 20 percent of the state’s overseas military personnel voted in 2016. He also wants to bolster election 
> > > security.
> > >
> > > In the state’s primary in May, Warner got his wish. A pilot program enabling voting via a blockchain network 
> > > allowed his son Scott—an Army first lieutenant in Vicenza, Italy—to cast a ballot with his smartphone. “In the same 
> > > amount of time that I could’ve pulled up and watched a YouTube video,” Scott Warner says, “I actually got to go 
> > > perform my civic duty.”
> > >
> > > West Virginia is testing the new method, which uses blockchain technology to store and secure digital votes, at a 
> > > time of heightened concern about election meddling. U.S. intelligence officials warn that Russia could interfere in 
> > > the congressional midterms on Nov. 6, and on July 31, Facebook Inc. said it’s investigating interferenceon its 
> > > social media platforms, similar to that seen during the 2016 presidential election. At a conference of election 
> > > officials in July, cybersecurity dominated the discussions. The West Virginia experiment could help determine 
> > > whether blockchain, widely used in cryptocurrency, has a place in election security. But computer scientists say 
> > > mobile voting is risky.
> > >
> > > The pilot program was funded with a $150,000 grant from Tusk/Montgomery Philanthropies Inc., a foundation set up by 
> > > venture capitalist and former Uber Technologies Inc. adviser Bradley Tusk. When he heard about Warner’s interest, 
> > > he asked one of his teams to research mobile voting startups. For the pilot, they picked Boston-based Voatz Inc.
> > >
> > > Tusk’s broader aim is to expand voter participation in the U.S. by enabling more mobile voting. (He served as 
> > > campaign manager in 2009 for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg 
> > > LP, which owns Bloomberg Businessweek.) “I have a 12-year-old and 9-year-old, and they would find it insane that 
> > > you couldn’t vote on a phone,” Tusk says. He wants to test mobile voting with groups such as the military, then 
> > > find officials “who are willing to try something different,” he says, to make the practice mainstream.
> > >
> > > Warner and his state elections director, Donald Kersey, worked with Voatz to make the app, which uses facial 
> > > recognition software to confirm voters’ identities, compliant with West Virginia’s laws. Votes were stored on the 
> > > blockchain, inside what Voatz executives call a “digital lockbox” on the cloud. On primary day, county clerks used 
> > > biometric authentication devices to unlock and collect the votes.
> > >
> > > Two counties, Harrison and Monongalia, ran the pilot in the May 8 primary. Because it’s so new, only a handful of 
> > > voters abroad used the app, according to Kersey. The blockchain technology distributes and stores the votes in 16 
> > > locations, including the cloud, using various providers. A hacker would have to get into all 16 locations to access 
> > > any of the votes, according to Kersey.
> > >
> > > Harrison County Clerk Susan Thomas says that because she couldn’t transfer the app votes into her tabulator, she 
> > > had to re-create the ballots before counting them. “There’s a lot that needs to be tweaked,” she says.
> > >
> > > Skeptics say blockchain voting won’t improve security. It’s “mostly hype,” says J. Alex Halderman, a University of 
> > > Michigan computer science professor known for hacking into voting machines. He says there are still core security 
> > > problems with mobile voting that blockchain doesn’t solve, such as preserving anonymity and transferring votes from 
> > > smartphones infected with malware. It’s “worthy of research and study—but it may be decades until we get there,” 
> > > Halderman says.
> > >
> > > These mobile systems also lack a paper backup, making it hard to audit vote counts, according to Audrey Malagon, a 
> > > mathematics professor working with the advocacy group Verified Voting Foundation. “I hope they recognize that this 
> > > isn’t ready for widespread use,” she says. Some West Virginia counties use only paper ballots; others have voting 
> > > machines that produce a receipt so voters can confirm their selections.
> > >
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> > > Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp
> >
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