Electronic Voting

July 21st, 2008

Before leaving the house, I saw on the news that the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC) will pilot an electronic voting process in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the coming gubernatorial (regional) election in the region. The machines are provided by Avante.

Electronic voting is still a huge issue in the United States and we debated the issue in one of my classes. A few nations have been using this technique for their elections, to some degree. The system is said to be “very” secure according to Smartmatic Sahi’s Vince Dizon because it uses an encryption similar to internet banking.

I’m pessimistic (once again) with this advancement. Firstly, ARMM is a very significant region in the current world affairs. If it was local government we’re talking about, then it would be okay, but this election affects several provinces. My pessimism lies on the technology. Any electronic device that we know of is insecure. Unless the system is using quantum encryption (which is not 100% secure anymore) then my pessimism would go away. If they are using an encryption that internet banking is using, then they are using decades old technology and have been documented to have been broken.

Government is more crucial than banking. If the system in banking catches an anomaly, they can always revert the numbers. In the government, you can’t ask the people to vote again. Election is not stateful, while banking is stateful. There’s a reset in banking, but none in election.

Do I need to mention the possible hackers? I think I’ll leave that to your imagination.

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Entry Filed under: Computers, Electronics, Hardware, Software