“The opportunities for rigging elections [are] child’s play for vendors and knowledgeable election officials.” Short-term technical problems … can be fixed. But the larger problem of essentially turning over vote-counting to unaccountable computer experts will be unresolved for years. At least when Boss Tweed stole votes, everyone knew it. Computer vote fraud can be extraodinarily difficult to trace.
Predictor: Neumann, Peter
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 essay for Newsweek magazine, Jonathan Alter quotes security expert Peter G. Neumann. Alter writes: ”Although the technology already exists for a full-scale teledemocracy, no one has yet figured out a way to guarantee the integrity of the balloting. In fact, even computerized voting at polling places remains surprisingly suspect. ‘The opportunities for rigging elections [are] child’s play for vendors and knowledgeable election officials,’ writes Peter G. Neumann in ‘Computer-Related Risks.’ (Neumann runs the Internet newsgroup The Risks Forum.) Short-term technical problems – like the disastous pileup last November in Canada when the Liberal Party tried a teleconvention with delegates voting from home by phone – can be fixed. But the larger problem of essentially turning over vote-counting to unaccountable computer experts will be unresolved for years. At least when Boss Tweed stole votes, everyone knew it. Computer vote fraud can be extraodinarily difficult to trace.”
Biography:Peter G. Neumann, the author of “Computer-Related Risks” (Addison-Wesley, 1995), was the creator/moderator of the ACM Risks Forum Digest for most of the 1980s and ’90s. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Campaigns/Voting
Name of publication: Newsweek
Title, headline, chapter name: The Couch Potato Vote: Soon You’ll Be Able to Vote From Home – But Should You?
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=5d49f907ed81f8ad940229bf4e732c7e&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVzb-lSlAl&_md5=bc39481b352c693d4f97794587e2ea1e
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney