Slowly, experiment by experiment, there have been attempts at testing how blockchain’s unique characteristics can be taken advantage of in the administration of elections. Limited, local initiatives have shown that blockchain may have a real role to play. But the news of new vulnerabilities discovered in a Swiss e-voting system has raised fresh concerns about the security of such plans. From Swissinfo
The e-voting system operated by Swiss Post will not be available for nationwide votes on May 19. This is the consequence of “critical errors” found during a public intrusion test, the Federal Chancellery and Swiss Post announced on Friday.
The Federal Chancellery said in a statement external link it would review the licensing and certification procedures for e-voting systems. It added that it had no indication that these flaws had resulted in votes being manipulated in previous ballots.
Swiss Post’s e-voting system had been in use in four cantons: Basel City, Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Thurgau.
The Organisation of the Swiss Abroad said on Friday external link it was deeply disappointed by the news, describing it as a blow against online voting “and thus a denial of the democratic rights of the Swiss Abroad”.
See the full article at Swissinfo, produced by the Swiss public broadcasting association. Even though the technology may be impressive, regular Democracy Chronicles readers might be sceptical. Using voting machines in any way is questionable in regard to security and can have a negative impact in voter confidence in election outcomes. Paper ballots are just more secure by nature and all computers have vulnerabilities. Be sure to also check out the Democracy Chronicles Election Technology section and our articles on Technology Dissidents, the Internet and Democracy or Voting Machines.
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