Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea
We still shouldn’t be using electronic voting. Here’s why. • Sponsored by Dashlane — for free on your first device @ https://www.dashlane.com/tomscott
MORE BASICS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha
REFERENCES:
Computerphile video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI
Stories about voter identification happening outside the law: https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1051,00.html
Voting machines left connected to the internet: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kxzk9/exclusive-critical-us-election-systems-have-been-left-exposed-online-despite-official-denials
Hackers getting voting machines to play Doom: https://www.salon.com/2019/08/14/hackers-can-easily-break-into-voting-machines-used-across-the-u-s-play-doom-nirvana/
“Small, well-funded team backed by a national government”: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/politics/russian-hacking-elections.html
Scottish election: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jun/20/scotland.devolution and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6627657.stm – with the Excel detail on page 50 of https://www.openrightsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/org_election_report.pdf?page=50
Report on e-voting in Estonia: https://estoniaevoting.org/
Written with Sean Elliott https://twitter.com/SeanMElliott/
Directed by Tomek
Graphics by Mooviemakers https://www.mooviemakers.co.uk/
Audio mix by Haerther Productions https://haerther.net/
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@ausgruenden1590
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
"I endorse [company] because they give me money."
Tom Scott, hero of honest advertising.
@jozonas
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
Except that the boxes of votes from regions leaning towards a political side goes missing. Right? Oh, thanks. We will jeep doing our own system over here.
@Zero_Agent-101
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
2:43 Why is the a part of the UK with no polling stations
@stunninghorizon
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
I'd rather not take my advice on voting from people who don't vote for their king AND also don't vote for their prime minister (btw, is it the 7th in 6 years now, or is it the 6th in 7 years? don't quite remember)
@SeanPersonalHayden
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
Could you not make a exclusively hardware based system with no actual software is that could actually be manipulated you would have a simple system with a series of buttons that will automatically record each vote into a spot in the memory where they can then be moved to an individual voting centre perhaps only one side can be used to download votes so as soon as it's finished recording clip off all the pins then the other side comes with tamper proof tape or you just have a massive box in the middle somewhere so you can't use some kind of tamper proof tape the kind of program would be so simple it's negligibly more difficult than how votes accounted now which most people don't understand anyway at least in Ireland another good democracies
@zappababe8577
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
3:46 I'd like to know how many Americans know the difference between open source or closed source software – let alone how few of them would actually have the ability to check the coding all the way through for bugs. I know a little bit about computers, and that prompts me to ask – could the dodgy coding be on the actual servers themselves? If so, then it is completely impossible for even the most tech-savvy citizen to be able to check it. They'd just have to trust that the staff who deal with those servers are 100% honest and haven't tampered with them in any way. I think anyone who has worked in an office knows that the IT staff are completely ignored until someone has an issue, and unless it can be fixed immediately the IT staff get blamed for it, even though the problem is between the keyboard and the chair. If they were approached by someone and offered a vast sum of money to insert a few lines of code, could you be sure that 100% of those neglected and resentful IT staff would turn that offer down?
@kilokixa
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
Recent news regarding the South Korea election brought me back again.
@EBEvitt
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
As a pollworker in a USAmerican state that uses electronic in person voting, this video is accurate, fascinating, and deeply, deeply chilling, especially in 2026.
@Bob94390
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
It's extremely important that people can trust the election results, otherwise we will have a worldwide wave of people like the chief US orange disaster starting insurrections based on claims about fixed elections.
@shaungains3558
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
In the US we have electronic ballot marking devices that are anonymous and completely disconnected from the internet and we have no trouble with bribes or threats
@CCTVIO247
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
2:08 How can court identify who voted when it's just an X in a box
@ryverhyker5400
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
Being a programmer even prior to the internet and now with CLAUDE MYTHOS breaking out of a secure sandbox environment – "The Breakout: The model built a "moderately sophisticated multi-step exploit" to gain internet access and, while the researcher was eating a sandwich in a park, emailed them to report that it had "escaped"." People keep needing to FAFO…okay so be it… WE WILL NEVER LEARN!!!
@notamustangdriver
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
End-to-end auditable voting in theory solves every problem pointed out in this video, except for maybe the "receipt of random numbers" problem.
@aryanbparida5998
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
We have been having EVM voting in India since "99 and except 2014 and 2019 we only have coalition governments
@fuiehfjfcnsl
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
ein Kommentar
@HoorayforCaptainSpalding
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
Thumbs down. Shame on you for this very disappointing rage-bait propaganda. Just because something is technically possible, in a permissive environment, doesn't mean it can happen in a process and environment intended to prevent it from happening with multiple locks, seals, checks, paper ballots which are audited, and a paper trail that must balance to the satisfaction of multiple officials (professional and volunteer) who have all taken an oath and are subject to felony prosecution if they allow any tampering.
@JensXP
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
I'm very happy that the german constituational court ruled that electronic voting is unconstitutional.
Every voter must be able to understand the system.
@MarkWilliams-sf9pd
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
I understand what you are talking about and yes when it gets to the internet it’s easy for the scammers although I will say that it would easier and better to use for Disability and Elderly people to vote.
@spadgefox684
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
As it's easy enough to walk into the booth with your husband in tow, and the postal vote system is equally simple to abuse, how DO you prevent voter fraud? Digital or Analog?
@Ranked_Journey
August 22, 2026 at 9:25 pm
There's already mail votes, what makes electronic mail so diffrent? There's also eIDs that let you sign legally binding agreements or transfer large sums. In terms of server end verification you could have multiple servers that all receive the same data, and that has oversight from multiple observes to make interfering harder (like there should be a solution to limit tempering).
That said I do know people that leave their smartphones unlocked, and don't assign pin codes. Also know people who write down codes. Maybe an upper age limit on electronic voting would be wise. Do need a backup system either way for anyone who can't get an eID, or for whatever reason can't use it.