@mattblaze

The only good solution I know is to have a physical box, have everyone check that it's empty, have all the ballot papers put in the box by voters while everyone watches, then shuffle the papers, then take them out and count them while everyone watches.

@davidgerard @brainwagon @neroden What on earth makes you think ensuring the integrity of voting in Australia (or anywhere else) is simple or easy?

There's more to election integrity than the vote-casting technology, and most of the hard properties on my list have nothing to do with computers.

But you're the expert.

@mattblaze I did a few months' work experience at the AEC in the 1990s and scrutineered (candidate's representative watching the AEC staff count the paper votes) for a friend when he ran in the late '90s, fwiw.

One thing that helps a lot is that voting is compulsory. This sounds weird, but that means the AEC tries super hard to make sure every single person over 18 is registered and able to vote, and to make voting super-easy. You can get a postal vote for the asking, or vote pre-poll easily.

From outside (UK or AU), the US's voting problems appear to be voter suppression, at both the registration and voting stage. The UK government has been getting into suppression at the voting stage of late.

i keep having to answer "but bl*ckch**n will solve elections!!" with "AUSTRALIA, DICKHEAD" and "NONE OF YOUR PROBLEMS ARE THE TECH"

@davidgerard That you have hardworking, scrupulously neutral public servants is great, but the problem is, what if they aren't as neutral as the system assumes that are. Or, equivalently, what if people THINK they aren't neutral. It can, and sadly does, happen in a heartbeat.

The trust and legitimacy of an election system is an extremely fragile thing.