Disregard my last post…..
NDP Leadership Online Voting Compromised
Well, it seems like I may have jumped the gun with my last post. I provided many ways that the internet could enhance democracy but did not take into account the fact that it also had the potential for unparalleled voter fraud. This was demonstrated to me in a stark manner with the NDP leadership convention, which used an online voting scheme to select the new leader for the party. It seems that hackers were able to install malicious software on thousands of Canadian computers which were set up to simultaneously bombard the voting website with traffic. While the votes themselves were unchanged, this attack disabled the website for a long period of time, leaving many voters to simply ‘give up’.
While this is undoubtedly a detriment to the operation of democracy, this type of strategy is not limited to the internet, although it is made easier. This type of attack is essentially the same as having a flash mob of people physically show up at a polling station, thereby clogging the entire process. This has happened before, and is just as possible with the internet as with actual polling stations. Its just that cyber security isn’t as good as physical security. At least not yet.
So we can use this story to derogate the internet as a democratic tool, or we can look at it as a speedbumb on the way. Just as with traditional democracy, it will take time to iron out the kinks.