Argentina Not Only Wants To Bring In E-Voting, It Will Make It Illegal To Check The System For Electoral Fraud

from the this-is-fine dept

Fri, Oct 7th 2016 6:29am — Glyn Moody

Earlier this year, we wrote about Australia's refusal to allow researchers to check e-voting software being used in that country. The situation in Argentina seems to be even worse. Access Now provides the background (original in Spanish):

The ruling party in Argentina is driving the adoption of an electronic voting system for national elections. Despite stern warnings from computer security experts about the dangers of the system, the ruling party is persisting with the project and plans to put it to a vote in Congress in the coming weeks.

Techdirt readers hardly need to be reminded about the deeply-flawed nature of e-voting systems, but there's a useful article on Medium (in Spanish) with plenty of links to hispanophone experts from widely-different backgrounds warning against the move.

Imposing an e-voting system may be foolish, but Argentina's plans manage to magnify that folly many times over. A blog post in Spanish by Javier Smaldone explains why:

The proposal provides for imprisonment (1 to 6 years) for conducting activities that are essential in any audit or independent review of the system.

Thus, it is intended to impose the use of computer system in the casting and counting of votes, and as if it were not already extremely difficult for any citizen to be sure how it works (and it is safe), anyone who tries to find out is punished with imprisonment.

It's one thing to bring in an e-voting system that most experts say is a bad idea in theory. But making it effectively illegal to point out flaws that exist in practice is really asking for trouble. Unless this proposed law is changed to allow independent scrutiny of the systems, Argentina will probably find this out the hard way.

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Filed Under: argentina, e-voting, fraud, security, security by obscurity

33 Comments

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That One Guy (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 5:52am

"Trust me... or else."
A push for e-voting and prison sentences for anyone who tries to verify how accurate or secure it actually is... there has got to be an easier way for politicians to tell the public that they support the idea of rigging elections(so long as said 'elections' are in their favor of course).
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DannyB (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 6:42am

Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
Just have a one party, one candidate system.

Make it a mandatory requirement for everyone to vote. That ensures high voter turnout, eliminating a common criticism.

Ballots are identified with each voter -- to ensure the integrity of the system that every voter voted, and exactly once.

This improved system would not only avoid confusion about who to vote for, it would streamline the entire electoral process.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 6:46am

all it will take is some deniable schmuck to hack to system for a separate candidate or to engineer a situation like where Woodrow Wilson won, making sure all the candidates have similarly close votes and one guy with slightly more votes than them.
here's the rope to hang yourself Argentina ------------o
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 6:50am

Bringing vote manipulation and rigged elections to the digital future!
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 6:59am

oh yea....
Nothing is going to go wrong here!
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 7:08am

> Argentina's plans manage to magnify that folly many times over.

What folly? It's a feature critical to the system! Who knows what could happen if the Wrong People get elected?
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 7:19am

Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
Make it a mandatory requirement for everyone to vote. That ensures high voter turnout, eliminating a common criticism.

Argentina already has this. Aside from a few very narrow exceptions, all citizens of voting age are required to vote. However, it is legal to votar en blanco (cast a blank ballot,) which is regarded as a protest vote.
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 7:20am

Re:
You could end up disgusting enough of the electorate when your tactics get exposed that Donald Trump ends up President?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 7:23am

Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
What happens if Blanco wins? Do they hold new elections with all new candidates?
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Ninja (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 8:02am

But making it effectively illegal to point out flaws that exist in practice is really asking for trouble.

Or making it work as intended.
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TheResidentSkeptic (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 8:06am

The Chicago Gang beat this system.
One Citizen, One Vote? How amateur. Chicago used "Vote Early, Vote Often" and election vote counts easily exceeded the population. Just because someone's address was their parish cemetery was no reason to not count their vote...
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 8:53am

finally a real solution to the downside of trying to look democratic. now you can safely trumpet democracy up and down the aisles without the least worry that it might actually work.
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DannyB (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 9:01am

Re: Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
In the event of En Blanco's absence, or the inability of the government to locate him, then his successor may be the previous office holder; who can then issue assurances and promised of a through investigation into the disappearance of En Blanco.
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DannyB (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 9:02am

Re:
It's well known that it takes time for the government, the law, congress, and courts to catch up with technology.
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DannyB (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 9:04am

Re: oh yea....
Even if some rump of a candidate could hack themselves into office, couldn't they then pardon themself?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 9:06am

Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
Do it like Russia where 150% of the people vote for Putin, including the dead, fictional characters and non-Russian celebrities!
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DannyB (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 9:08am

Re: Re:
That is the real insight.

The people at the top corrupting, manipulating, and rigging all the controls of government, power and wealth may be surprised if something like that would happen for that reason.

And they cannot control the person who gets elected.

And that person is a lose cannon (sic). And things end up going very badly.

But hey, they brought it on themself, and upon the rest of us.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 9:10am

Who said ...
..that the world couldn't learn something from we Americans?
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Hugo S Cunningham (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 9:34am

Inspired by Venezuela?
Chavista Venezuela pioneered reliable E-voting technology in the 20-noughts. Now Argentina's right-leaning government is picking up the idea and improving on it. In an era of so much negativity and ideology-based obstructionism, it is heartwarming to see such cooperation "across the aisle": one man, one vote, one time only.
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Oblate (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 10:44am

This does make some things simpler...
No need to spend time counting the votes, the results are going to be 86,000,000,000.02 to 0xcccccccc.
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Frifrifri, 7 Oct 2016 @ 11:43am

Re: Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 11:51am

No one should vote then.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 12:03pm

Auction
Thanks to the Russians, we'll see the election up for bid on some .onion addressed marketplace.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 12:40pm

Security through obscurity doesn't work.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2016 @ 1:07pm

Argentina will probably find this out the hard way.

Or you know it won't because it's illegal to audit it.
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Coyne Tibbets (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 4:53pm

Trust by fiat
We're bringing in a fully trustworthy voting system...and you WILL TRUST IT OR ELSE!!!!
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Exequiel, 7 Oct 2016 @ 7:01pm

Re: Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
Blank votes are added to the one candidate who is ahead in the final count.
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Padpaw (profile), 7 Oct 2016 @ 7:08pm

As another country falls towards dictatorship
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Zanteago, 7 Oct 2016 @ 8:24pm

Re: Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
No. Blank votes are sustracted from the total. That's why a blank vote normally express "i don't care, i'm just here cause it's mandatory", but only helps the leader increasing his %. Truely protest votes are made nuling your envelope, because those are part of the total.

After the 2001 crisis, people put into the voting envelopes pictures of the "founding fathers". They also put prints of Clemente, a cartoon character with no arms, with the legend "he has no arms, he can't steal"
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2016 @ 5:42am

Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
He's been in in power since 1999 and isn't going away anytime soon. From Investopedia:

"There is an election coming in Russia in 2018, and the big question is if current President Vladimir Putin will rule for a fourth consecutive term. It is a serious question with geopolitical and economic implications. If Putin runs and wins, which seems likely at this point, it means he will have had control of one of the world's most influential countries for 24 years. This is exactly how long Joseph Stalin ruled the USSR; 24 years spans six presidential terms in the United States."
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Cho Seung Hui, 9 Oct 2016 @ 10:53am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
Your country forced mandatory voting via brainless NGO on poor lands like peru (Transparency International and their "partners").

And mandatory voting was main propaganda measure to distort political trends.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2016 @ 10:54am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Wouldn't it be simpler . . .
So distorted it helped to PASS the same problem with e-voting in peru.
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btr1701 (profile), 11 Oct 2016 @ 2:52pm

Re: "Trust me... or else."
People wanting to verify the security of the system should just have their research published online by proxy outside of Argentina.

If someone in Kansas posts the info, Argentina can't do dick about it.
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