The security world has certainly changed since 2001. Everyday, we all take some level of risk, by using a credit card, clicking on a link, or following our GPS map. The mechanisms to intrude in these decisions have grown exponentially more sophisticated and effective.

Yet, few of us avoid this behavior.

Why?

Because we place trust in the providers of the services. We recognize and have experience with them on a daily basis. 

We lost trust in membership in 2015 in that debacle where we tried to have users print ballots. ARRL had never done this before and turnout was a fraction of the voters before and since. We won’t repeat that mistake.

We simply need to find a provider that members can trust.

As Ria pointed out, there are service companies that conduct elections for nonprofit membership corporations, as well as companies whose stock is publicly held. 

I suggest that we ask staff to compile a list of the companies that handle elections and ballots electronically or hybrid paper/electronically that might be interested in our business. 

I don’t know if there are five or fifty such firms, but I believe we can find one the membership can trust.

73, 

Mickey N4MB

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From: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> on behalf of hopengarten@post.harvard.edu <hopengarten@post.harvard.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2021 10:00:18 PM
To: arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>
Subject: [arrl-odv:31912] FW: ARRL Board of Directors to Reconsider the Use of Electronic Balloting
 

Thought y’all might like to see this. WC1M is a serious person.

 

-Fred K1VR

 

From: wc1m73@gmail.com [mailto:wc1m73@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2021 9:46 PM
To: k1vr@arrl.org
Subject: ARRL Board of Directors to Reconsider the Use of Electronic Balloting

 

ARRL Board of Directors to Reconsider the Use of Electronic Balloting

 

Hi Fred,

 

Hmmm. Are you involved in this?

 

I spent 10 years as an investor and Director of  a startup I co-founded to do Internet Voting (not just organizational voting but the real deal – government elections, which we actually did in the U.K.) It’s a long, long story. Of course, the company failed. Given the recent election, I’m sort of glad it did. No doubt, the conspiracy theorists would have been all over us.

 

I believed deeply in the crypto we invented to do secure elections, and still do, but I’m quite skeptical about the systems used by companies that support electronic voting (as well as so-called electronic voting pioneers like Estonia.)

 

Speaking as the guy who designed the crypto security for LoTW, the process for which has been hated by many amateurs, it takes a lot to make a cyrpto systems secure.

 

If the Board decides to do this, the security algorithms and protocols offered by the vendor need to be vetted by experts.

 

73, Dick WC1M


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