Wednesday, August 12, 2020

The New Yorker: Why you can't just vote on your phone during the pandemic

The New Yorker: Why you can't just vote on your phone during the pandemic
By Sue Halpern

    Many people are concerned with going to the polls during the pandemic, and some have found state-run pilot programs for online voting on the Internet and social media. So why aren't we all just voting online?
    Three words: It's not safe. Pilot programs and last-second emergency online voting has shown that hackers can easily change a vote while it is traveling from the voter to the counter, all without leaving a trace. In fact, a government programmer demonstrated all the weak points in a video that can be found online.
    Now, we could send absentee ballots to people online, have them fill it out, print it, and mail it, but hackers could still gain access to what was input on the ballot, leading to the possibility of targeted political ads. However, there is great potential and many investors in this idea, and perhaps the future will see widespread online voting.

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