Dec 10, 17 / Cap 08, 01 20:42 UTC

Voter fraud  

How does Asgardia plan on preventing voter fraud. It seems to me that someone could vpn a bunch of fake accounts and vote hundreds of times for them self. How does the current system have even an ounce of integrity to prevent something like this from happening?

Dec 11, 17 / Cap 09, 01 05:47 UTC

Thank you for asking. The question has been asked time and time and again and each time reassurances have been given. However, no action for the suspicious accounts have ever been taken and no specific answer was given.
So, it is good to see this question again!
Maybe this time there will really be an answer?
Anyone?

Dec 12, 17 / Cap 10, 01 13:47 UTC

Ignatius,

Only Asgardian citizens who have verified their identities and accepted the constitution can vote. Much like during ratification of the constitution we saw a swell of "voters" who then dissapeared when the votes were validated, we will likely see the same on Parliamentary should it be tried. If the persons doing so cannot validate the identities of these supposed voters their votes will be thrown out. This process is why the ratification vote took as long as it did to be confirmed.

Dec 19, 17 / Cap 17, 01 09:30 UTC

And I'm thinking of another kind of voter fraud: What if someone sabotages me by using fake accounts to vote for me, and get me suspended? How could we make sure that that doesn't happen onto me? 

Dec 22, 17 / Cap 20, 01 01:12 UTC

How are identities verified? I don't recall there being 'an upload your identity here' when registering to join Asgardia....

Dec 22, 17 / Cap 20, 01 12:23 UTC

I just conducted a quick test (I deleted everything after I was done, as I don't want to skew our demographics or be accused of actually trying to commit voter fraud).

I was able to create a user, with no more verification than an email address, and, it appears, I would be able to participate in the elections (This is a quick screen caputre of what met me, logging in with a newly created user: https://imagebin.ca/v/3lZ23BE83aZt)

Voters such as these may be weeded out later, but I don't see how they could be weeded out automatically, using the very sparse information I provided on account creation. It would, I believe, be a long and tedious manual process, requiring further identification by users.

Dec 26, 17 / Cap 24, 01 15:44 UTC

@Christian, did this new account have an Asgardian ID number?

Dec 27, 17 / Cap 25, 01 04:50 UTC

Also, will the system hold up in future?  It might benefit from the elasticity of cloud computing in the event of population growth, although that presents some additional security considerations - and it might be worth hiring a cloud professional for consultancy work in the first instance before drafting a request for proposals document.  I believe that Florida State uses cloud computing for voting which could be researched, and there is an organisation in the USA that can also certify voting systems - the Election Assistance Commission. There may be something similar in Austria, but really Asgardia should have its own version.  The cost of setting up such a body if it were not on a voluntary basis would be very high through, so it might not be affordable at the moment.

Jan 15, 18 / Aqu 15, 02 06:21 UTC

Thank you Christian. So in essence, one could register 100 new email accounts, use 100 different computers (or IP addresses), and there is no mechanism in place to prevent this from counting towards the election. I don't want to get too sci-fi, but perhaps a unique identifier is required when voting to prevent this type of fraud...i.e, retina scan, finger print, etc. Any thoughts or suggestions? 

Jan 24, 18 / Aqu 24, 02 16:18 UTC

Now that you fiddled with external "cheaters", try to figure how much time it will cost to the management, at the "inner side", to create... let's say 50.000 fake users, registering/confirming them at the same time, making them to vote and deleting them after that... if they just don't like to directly change voting results into their DB (and create fake log records, at the same time, for Elections Commission's leisure).

Jan 25, 18 / Aqu 25, 02 04:30 UTC

Kinda like Crimea with 96.77% of the vote...

Jan 26, 18 / Aqu 26, 02 11:07 UTC

Dr. Spokoyny, Head of Administrative Affairs, recently asked me to step in to the role of Elections Manager. Aside from offering support to candidates, one of my mandates is to investigate electoral fraud.

There are administrative tools that help us verify names, photos, and documents. We also have very good reporting of the voting trends for each candidate. We are able to look for anomalous patterns in the voting history and then examine which citizens voted in a particular period.

We have identified one case of potential vote tampering. Administrative Affairs immediately contacted IT and we are locking down parts of the system to prevent such fraud from occuring again.

Nik
Nikari Steve Miller, Elections Manager
Elections Office, Administrative Affairs

Jan 26, 18 / Aqu 26, 02 16:09 UTC

@Nikari Steve Miller
Do you mean you're able to "verify names, photos, and documents" with official governments into countries where the documents should be given? Pretty sure my government will never give you any of my details (in the remote case I'll send you a document of myself), nor it will talk with you at governmental level unless Asgardia is recognized (by my country, not by you) as an independent country.
So, the fact you (affirm you) "have tools" means nothing. And it means even less if it's Asgardia to make a voting fraud, if there is no third party control of the voting procedure.

Jan 29, 18 / Pis 01, 02 03:02 UTC

Im sure they can do it by name search and checking on face book to see how old an account is and Im sure most those who have committed fraud used the same computer ,so thats a easy find  

Feb 23, 18 / Pis 26, 02 14:45 UTC

@Ricky Sickles
Are you assuming all the people are registered to Facebook? Good luck finding me there, then.
I missed the point where Facebook become the official ID certificator, tho.