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't simply "nerd harder". 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've learned to appreciate any avenues to "de-politicize" a controversy and get it to that kind of body.