Possible use of Python for a voting machine demo project -- your feedback requested

[Paul Rubin]

"Alan Dechert" <adechert at earthlink.net> writes:
> Right.  This receipt problem is way overblown.  If we really thought this
> was a big problem, absentee voting would be illegal.  There are problems
> with absentee voting but then look at Oregon -- they have gone to
> vote-by-mail entirely.

In fact absentee ballots are just about the favorite mechanism of
ballot fraud.  Absentee voting should be greatly curtailed if not
banned outright.  Instead, voters away from home should be allowed to
cast their ballots at any official polling place they happen to be
near, not just at the one in their home district.

I have doubts about Oregon but its problems don't see nearly as bad as
places like Florida (try Googling for "Xavier Suarez" and "fraud").
If they did mail-in voting in Florida, they would never get a reliable
election result again.

As for the receipt problem being overblown, IIRC, Benaloh's original
paper described its motivation, citing examples of the Mafia telling
people how to vote in Italian elections and demanding to see receipts.
There would be similar problems in the US military from what I've heard.