Sure, my intuition was that there would be a big positive effect on turnout and it shouldn't be dismissed because of sci-fi exploit fears. Turns out, there is good evidence turnout isn't affected, so there is a good reason to dismiss it.https://twitter.com/egflo/status/1379890058673725440 …
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Replying to @taviso @jeffmcjunkin and
How do you protect against a user loading a malicious app (call it "Official MAGA Voter Guide") that on election day behaves convincingly like the official voting app but doesn't actually cast a ballot? That's not a sci-fi exploit. Security of user devices is hard.
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Replying to @mattblaze @jeffmcjunkin and
As I said above, the potential scale of disruption is no worse than with mail-in ballots. How do you protect against a robocall that convincingly spreads misinformation about voting? The scale of disruption would be similar, so that's not a good argument to dismiss it.
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Replying to @taviso @jeffmcjunkin and
Except that you still have that problem, but also now this new one. Plus all the other new ones you and I haven't considered (I just made this attack up on the spot). You're strictly increasing the amount of vulnerability, as well as the avenues for casting doubt on the outcome.
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Replying to @mattblaze @jeffmcjunkin and
Not so, there are attacks against mail-in ballots and the postal service that would no longer work. Even so a modest increase in attack surface to make voting more accessible and reduce disenfranchisement would be a good trade... (Yes, evidence suggests it doesn't).
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Replying to @taviso @jeffmcjunkin and
You want only people who own smartphones to be able to cast absentee ballots by eliminating mail-in voting? Let me refer you to election law.
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Replying to @mattblaze @jeffmcjunkin and
That doesn't really sound like a good faith argument. I think you're saying "unless we turn of mail-in ballots, then we have more vulnerabilities", but that's not true - malicious disruptions to the postal service would still allow other forms of voting.
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Replying to @taviso @mattblaze and
Lot of "consider a spherical voter of radius R" energy here
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Replying to @Pinboard @mattblaze and
I don't know, Matt said "You're strictly increasing the amount of vulnerability", that seems worth addressing. There are attacks that are no longer possible, so it's not true... right?
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Replying to @taviso @mattblaze and
Vulnerability here extends out into non-technical domains like people's general confidence in elections being fair. Elections are not a technical problem but a general social consensus, and adding apps to the mix adds layers of serious risk even if they were provably error-free.
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Also, the idea that removing friction is always a net positive has been proven wrong many times before. Having Apple (or anyone else) YOLO fundamental changes to voting would show that we've learned nothing from all the previous disruptors who fucked up something trying to fix it
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