Open-source means anyone can look at the code, be it on their machine or at the repository.
Yeah good luck with that. There probably aren’t more than a few hundred people, thousands at best, in the world who understand the mathematics required for properly pulling off electronic voting, because it requires some sort of zero knowledge protocol – you want tamper-evident votes, but you don’t want anybody to be able to connect a specific vote to a specific voter, and you also need to eg prevent the same person from voting multiple times, while also making sure that only citizens can vote.
Super simple. Yeah, sure anyone can look at the code, but 0.00001% of the people looking at it will understand it, and even fewer can actually spot any potential problems because the systems are so damn complex. And what’s worse, you can have holes in your voting system that you don’t know about until way after a vote, and then you may not have any way of knowing if the vote was valid or not
The point of laminated receipts, is to allow a voter to give physical proof if something is wrong with the digital system. If there are enough people who reveal their votes, they can use it to force an investigation. By having every physical ballot laminated by default, people can just toss it into a storage box and not worry about it falling apart if something comes up some years later.
What do you even need the digital system for at that point?
Like, did you even bother to look at that article? Electronic voting is incredibly complex, and if you end up having to rely on physical receipts anyhow because you can’t be sure the result is right, why even bother?
The digital part is to make it so that voting is fast and convenient. People are busy critters, so we want them to vote, preferably by quickly filling out a form on their smartphone and instantly sending in their vote.
As they do so, they can order a voting station to print out the physical ballot, which can be picked up or sent by mail to the voter. That ballot exists to verify that the digital voting is intact, if people start feeling like something is up. If people have good vibes about the voting, they won’t show their ballot on social media. However, if someone like Elon is fucking with things, people can assert that he is a cheesehead, and have the receipts to prove it.
It ain’t perfect. But it is important to try to at do “mostly good”, rather than being fundamentally sucky. As it is, the logistics for getting people to the booth, weird rules, and concerns like ICE intimidating people are issues.
Also, America isn’t Estonia - it is a much larger nation, so there are more resources all around to tackle the problem. Heck, Estonia probably wouldn’t mind becoming support staff and selling a license to make a fork of their system. FDR’s administration invented social security, did the Manhatten Project, and many major social works. Government, when it is willing to, can pull off major feats. So the same philosophy can apply to voting systems.
A well designed voting system can last centuries, if we are willing as a society to put in the effort.
The digital part is to make it so that voting is fast and convenient
But it wouldn’t be, would it? People would still have to line up and wait for their laminated receipts. The entire point of your “digital voting” system is defeated by this one element. If there’s a physical component required anyway, might as well do the more secure version, and have everyone voting physically too.
As they do so, they can order a voting station to print out the physical ballot, which can be picked up or sent by mail to the voter
I’m struggling to imagine the sheer amount of paper going through the postal services with this set-up. At this point it kinda’ sounds like you’re a lobbyist for some paper company. New York City Hall alone passes 50-100 bills per month. And you want people to be voting on their city, state, and federal bills and laws!
It ain’t perfect. But it is important to try to at do “mostly good”, rather than being fundamentally sucky
I’m sorry to say this, but this systems is fundamentally sucky.
It requires the exact same things to go right as representative democracy, but introduces so many things to go wrong…
Also, America isn’t Estonia - it is a much larger nation, so there are more resources all around to tackle the problem
Estonia is the most digitised country on the planet, what are you even talking about, mate…?
They’re so enamoured with their idea that they just completely refuse to listen to reason, and they clearly don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about – classic Dunning-Kruger situation.
Yeah good luck with that. There probably aren’t more than a few hundred people, thousands at best, in the world who understand the mathematics required for properly pulling off electronic voting, because it requires some sort of zero knowledge protocol – you want tamper-evident votes, but you don’t want anybody to be able to connect a specific vote to a specific voter, and you also need to eg prevent the same person from voting multiple times, while also making sure that only citizens can vote.
Here, read this 2025 article on Estonia’s system: https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/506.pdf
Super simple. Yeah, sure anyone can look at the code, but 0.00001% of the people looking at it will understand it, and even fewer can actually spot any potential problems because the systems are so damn complex. And what’s worse, you can have holes in your voting system that you don’t know about until way after a vote, and then you may not have any way of knowing if the vote was valid or not
The point of laminated receipts, is to allow a voter to give physical proof if something is wrong with the digital system. If there are enough people who reveal their votes, they can use it to force an investigation. By having every physical ballot laminated by default, people can just toss it into a storage box and not worry about it falling apart if something comes up some years later.
What do you even need the digital system for at that point?
Like, did you even bother to look at that article? Electronic voting is incredibly complex, and if you end up having to rely on physical receipts anyhow because you can’t be sure the result is right, why even bother?
The digital part is to make it so that voting is fast and convenient. People are busy critters, so we want them to vote, preferably by quickly filling out a form on their smartphone and instantly sending in their vote.
As they do so, they can order a voting station to print out the physical ballot, which can be picked up or sent by mail to the voter. That ballot exists to verify that the digital voting is intact, if people start feeling like something is up. If people have good vibes about the voting, they won’t show their ballot on social media. However, if someone like Elon is fucking with things, people can assert that he is a cheesehead, and have the receipts to prove it.
It ain’t perfect. But it is important to try to at do “mostly good”, rather than being fundamentally sucky. As it is, the logistics for getting people to the booth, weird rules, and concerns like ICE intimidating people are issues.
Also, America isn’t Estonia - it is a much larger nation, so there are more resources all around to tackle the problem. Heck, Estonia probably wouldn’t mind becoming support staff and selling a license to make a fork of their system. FDR’s administration invented social security, did the Manhatten Project, and many major social works. Government, when it is willing to, can pull off major feats. So the same philosophy can apply to voting systems.
A well designed voting system can last centuries, if we are willing as a society to put in the effort.
But it wouldn’t be, would it? People would still have to line up and wait for their laminated receipts. The entire point of your “digital voting” system is defeated by this one element. If there’s a physical component required anyway, might as well do the more secure version, and have everyone voting physically too.
I’m struggling to imagine the sheer amount of paper going through the postal services with this set-up. At this point it kinda’ sounds like you’re a lobbyist for some paper company. New York City Hall alone passes 50-100 bills per month. And you want people to be voting on their city, state, and federal bills and laws!
I’m sorry to say this, but this systems is fundamentally sucky.
It requires the exact same things to go right as representative democracy, but introduces so many things to go wrong…
Estonia is the most digitised country on the planet, what are you even talking about, mate…?
They’re so enamoured with their idea that they just completely refuse to listen to reason, and they clearly don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about – classic Dunning-Kruger situation.
BUT THE LAMINATED RECEIPTS
Lamination is the KEY, dude!