ELI5 - why can I file tax online but not vote

[badatmath]

I am on the perm early voting list - rec'd no ballot. Called they said they fix, no ballot. On hold 24 minutes this time. . .

Really if you all believe my taxes are right why can't my vote be?

 

[MichaelB]

You need to contact your county elections officer to find out what is happening.

 

[badatmath]

That is who I am holding for. . .

 

[FDC319]

I am on the perm early voting list - rec'd no ballot. Called they said they fix, no ballot. On hold 24 minutes this time. . .

Why don't you do it the old fashioned way?

 

[badatmath]

Odd that no one answered why we can't do it online. I thought maybe everyone but me already knew . . . seriously. Nevermind.

 

[Bigdawg]

Odd that no one answered why we can't do it online. I thought maybe everyone but me already knew . . . seriously. Nevermind.

Voting is regional. Voting rules and regs change almost with every county. Have no idea where you are. Good luck with your situation. Our election officials are engaged where I live and seem to answer voter concerns in a timely manner.

 

[Koolau]

I am on the perm early voting list - rec'd no ballot. Called they said they fix, no ballot. On hold 24 minutes this time. . .

Really if you all believe my taxes are right why can't my vote be?

I have no idea if your taxes are right. I've had the IRS both dun me for more money and send back some of my money I over paid. Of course, none of this was fraud. Just mistakes my accountant made on my behalf. I think I'll just leave it at that since YMMV.

 

[Go-NoGo]

Odd that no one answered why we can't do it online. I thought maybe everyone but me already knew . . . seriously. Nevermind.

if you want to dive a little deeper into why online voting is not recommended at this time I would recommend you read these 2 articles:

"Why online voting is harder than online banking"
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/why-online-voting-is-harder-than-online-banking/

Votes are anonymous, banking isn’t
Every electronic transaction in the conventional banking system is tied to a specific sender and recipient who can confirm that a transaction is valid or raise the alarm if it isn't. Banks count on customers to periodically review their transactions—either online or in paper statements—and notify the bank if fraudulent transactions occur.

By contrast, experts told me, elections are supposed to be secret. In-person elections don't just allow voters to cast a secret ballot, they typically require them to do so. Mandatory secrecy insulates voters from coercion by bosses, abusive spouses, elder care workers, or others in positions of power or influence.

Why experts are overwhelmingly skeptical of online voting
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...re-overwhelmingly-skeptical-of-online-voting/

It's hard to prove online voting is secure
For an ordinary voter without a technology background, this kind of debate may be impenetrable. And that points to a fundamental downside to the concept of voting online. A voting system doesn't just need to be secure—it needs to be provably secure. And the proof of its security needs to be understandable by ordinary voters.

Online vote-hacking scales
Online election hacking also scales in a way that tampering with an offline election doesn't. Someone can hack an online election from anywhere in the world. A hacker who finds a vulnerability in a voting software package can exploit that same weakness in every jurisdiction that uses the software.

By contrast, tampering with the results of a conventional paper-based election is massively labor-intensive. An attacker needs to physically visit the locations where ballots are collected, stored, or counted. If someone wants to modify the results of 100 precincts, they may need to recruit 99 confederates to pull off an attack.

This is a particularly significant difference if you're worried about attacks by foreign governments. It's trivial for the Russian government to hire 100 hackers to attack American election infrastructure from a comfortable office building in Moscow

 

[GalaxyBoy]

And this article:

https://verifiedvoting.org/?publication=if-i-can-shop-and-bank-online-why-cant-i-vote-online

Thanks for musing on this topic. I have had the same questions and it made me read up on it.

 

[ERD50]

Odd that no one answered why we can't do it online. I thought maybe everyone but me already knew . . . seriously. Nevermind.

There were some good follow ups an what makes on-line voting difficult to make secure (and I appreciate those, I never really though through how secrecy makes it so much harder).

But on the other side, there have been well publicized cases of tax fraud (commonly, someone impersonating you to get a refund before you file), so it's a non starter that taxes are secure. And related to above, it is eventually uncovered when you submit your taxes, and they are rejected as already filed. So all the bad guys need to do is target names that have not voted recently, and no one will ever know that someone voted in place of them. I want my ballot to be far more secure than that.

-ERD50

 

[harllee]

Don't some states and countries currently allow online voting? I have not heard of any major problems. I think it could be done with sufficient safeguards.

 

[Texas Proud]

I filed taxes for both my sister and mom... so it is not 'secure' for voting.


Also, remember that there is a lot of fraud where people file for a refund of other people's return...

 

[OldShooter]

Occam's Razor: The bureaucracy is very interested in getting your money. It doesn't really care whether you vote or not. So one is easy, one often not so easy.

 

[badatmath]

Thanks for the references! That is more what I was wanting to know out of this thread.

 

[SecondCor521]

Don't some states and countries currently allow online voting? I have not heard of any major problems. I think it could be done with sufficient safeguards.

Other countries maybe. Never heard of it in the US.

The closest thing I know of in the US is that some places have tried "electronic voting" where there's a touch screen interface instead of the traditional paper ballot, and you point-and-click your way through the process. But the touch screen and it's software are located at a polling place.

It's had problems, some of which are shared with the remote voting approach, including security, traceability/auditing, and software bugs. It's also more expensive than traditional paper ballots.

 

[harley]

Odd that no one answered why we can't do it online. I thought maybe everyone but me already knew . . . seriously. Nevermind.

Probably because you never asked why can't we do it online. However, assuming you had asked, there are many good responses already as to the issues. I subscribe to Risks Mailing List (https://seclists.org/risks/), and they have been reporting problems with online voting systems for at least 12 years, pretty much every issue. Feel free to read. It's just not a safe way to vote.

Edit: Oops. Missed the title of the thread, and just read the comments. Sorry about that. But the rest of my post still stands.