Interesting analysis: An Internet Voting System Fatally Flawed in Creative New Ways. > Abstract: The recently published “MERGE” protocol is designed to be used in > the prototype CAC-vote system. The voting kiosk and protocol transmit votes > over the internet and then transmit voter-verifiable paper ballots through the > mail. In the MERGE protocol, the votes transmitted over the internet are used > to tabulate the results and determine the winners, but audits and recounts use > the paper ballots that arrive in time. The enunciated motivation for the > protocol is to allow (electronic) votes from overseas military voters to be > included in preliminary results before a (paper) ballot is received from the > voter. MERGE contains interesting ideas that are not inherently unsound; but > to make the system trustworthy—to apply the MERGE protocol—would require major > changes to the laws, practices, and technical and logistical abilities of U.S. > election jurisdictions. The gap between theory and practice is large and > unbridgeable for the foreseeable future. Promoters of this research project at > DARPA, the agency that sponsored the research, should acknowledge that MERGE > is internet voting (election results rely on votes transmitted over the > internet except in the event of a full hand count) and refrain from claiming > that it could be a component of trustworthy elections without sweeping changes > to election law and election administration throughout the U.S...