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Comment by ccvannorman | Hacker News Reader

Maybe OT, but why is one of the requirements for a better voting system "anonymous"? What's wrong with a voting system in which every citizen's vote is transparent and available? Seems like it would be much less susceptible to fraud and easier to audit that way. I don't see a problem with anyone seeing how I voted!

Maybe I am missing something?

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In a system where your vote can be verified, you can be coerced into voting a certain way.

As a special case of this, one might see the mild "coercion" in simply being uncomfortable with going against the grain by voting for something that others strongly dislike.

The votes do not need to be public. It should only be verifiable to people that know your key.

That does not solve actual coercion, but honest peer pressure isn't a problem.

In a system where your vote can't be verified, there's no way to assert that

- your vote went to the candidate that you chose

- all votes come from actual human beings

Politicians can rig votes without coercing anyone, so I guess that's a plus.

That could be avoided by generating a new identity for each vote.

Thanks for those (other comments) - it seems obvious in retrospect. As someone whose vote cannot be bought these things don't occur to me. :-)

I'm not looking to buy your vote. But should you choose poorly come Election Day, maybe me and the boys will pay you another visit.

It enables candidates purchasing votes

I don't see why this is such a bad thing. It happens anyway, let's just be honest and own it.

The only difference right now is that we don't receive a penny of the money spent on voting campaigns.

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