When tech says ‘no’
I spent a few years in Ireland and the Netherlands lobbying against insecure voting machines. I had so many conversations with politicians and civil servants where these effects were in abundance. In each country I was representing a group that included the most eminent and experienced computer scientists in the country. Whenever we briefed someone for the first time, it would only take a minute or two to cover how without a voter-verified paper audit trail, no-one knew how to build a system that provided anonymity, verifiability, and resistance to voter coercion and vote selling. But it just never clicked, so many of them refused to believe that we couldn&#x27;t simply &quot;nerd harder&quot;. And of course, there was no shortage of charlatans who would tell them that <i>they</i> could solve it.<p>In Ireland, we put enough pressure on the politicians for them to create a cross-body commission to investigate. Because anyone could make detailed submissions, and because the commission treated these submissions like the clerks of the Supreme Court treat amicus briefs; it was pretty effective. The commission ended up pausing, and ultimately abandoning, the rollout. Ever since I&#x27;ve learned to appreciate any avenues to &quot;de-politicize&quot; a controversy and get it to that kind of body.