Using interactive proofs you can know that the machine won't modify your vote, and using zero-knowledge proofs plus a distributed key you can decrypt and randomize, being certain that votes haven't been lost and without revealing whom people voted for.
Additionally with a public ledger like the blockchain, you can be certain that your vote is there (checking your signature), and when votes were cast.
Using something like colored coins you can ensure that no additional votes are created.
The problem that I do see with remote voting is that I could be right next to you when you vote and coerce you to vote for the person that I want
https://roamingaroundatrandom.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/an-mp...
It is based on multiparty computation, and individual smartcards for the voters (the simplest secure solution).
Would it be possible to add another vote that invalidates the first, but preserves anonymity? Then there's no guarantee that someone doesn't just revote.
You could make it anonymous - the unique combination of your vote, your key, and the election blockchain could produce a password unique to you. This would allow you to verify that your vote was counted, but would not allow anyone else to do so - if they coerced you, you could run your key, the blockchain, and the opposite vote and produce a different password and your attacker would be none the wiser.
But then if you find that your password has changed, how do you prove it? I don't think there's any way to prove election fraud without violating election confidentiality, even for paper ballots. How do you propose stopping election fraud with paper ballots? The current defense is merely "it is hard."
A person goes to the voting center and gets a ballot That person goes to the booth and marks the ballot That person skips entering their ballot and goes out Shows the ballot to the coercer, verifying the vote The coercer gives the ballot to the next person The next person gets another ballot and has the previous one hidden. That person introduces the new ballot, hides the old one and goes out. And the chain goes on.
Apparently it's a common way to coerce votes in low income urban areas and rural areas. You only need distraction or complicity from a person from the voting table and it's hard to detect.
Another common issue is vote stuffing.
On the philosophical part, it is in the end a human problem, but with technology at least you should reduce the possibility of cheating
Complicity is always going to be hard to work around (it's the primary fault vector of electronic voting), but it seems 'the chain' wouldn't be too difficult to detect - the standover men would have to farm the ballots from the outgoing people and get them back into the line going in (but again, complicity to look the other way...)
Vote stuffing is easy to workaround - have the ballot papers custom-marked as they're handed out.
> technology at least you should reduce the possibility of cheating
Technology also opens up lots of new avenues for cheating. It also has the problem of not being understandable by the layperson if they have to manage it in any way at all.