Lessons From the Papal Conclave About Election Security 183
Hugh Pickens writes "The rules for papal elections are steeped in tradition. John Paul II last codified them in 1996, and Benedict XVI left the rules largely untouched. The 'Universi Dominici Gregis on the Vacancy of the Apostolic See and the Election of the Roman Pontiff' is surprisingly detailed. Now as the College of Cardinals prepares to elect a new pope, security people like Bruce Schneier wonder about the process. How does it work, and just how hard would it be to hack the vote? First, the system is entirely manual, making it immune to the sorts of technological attacks that make modern voting systems so risky. Second, the small group of voters — all of whom know each other — makes it impossible for an outsider to affect the voting in any way. The chapel is cleared and locked before voting. No one is going to dress up as a cardinal and sneak into the Sistine Chapel. In short, the voter verification process is about as good as you're ever going to find. A cardinal can't stuff ballots when he votes. Then the complicated paten-and-chalice ritual ensures that each cardinal votes once — his ballot is visible — and also keeps his hand out of the chalice holding the other votes. Ballots from previous votes are burned, which makes it harder to use one to stuff the ballot box. What are the lessons here? First, open systems conducted within a known group make voting fraud much harder. Every step of the election process is observed by everyone, and everyone knows everyone, which makes it harder for someone to get away with anything. Second, small and simple elections are easier to secure. This kind of process works to elect a pope or a club president, but quickly becomes unwieldy for a large-scale election. And third: When an election process is left to develop over the course of a couple of thousand years, you end up with something surprisingly good."
Re:This is blindingly obvious (Score:5, Funny)
If the pope is the representative of god on earth, I am assuming that the cardinals are all praying to god for guidance, therefore there shouldn't be any competing groups, assuming that we can verify that god exists.
I assume this is why they are all looking over each others shoulders too - you wouldn't want to be the odd cardinal out who votes the wrong way, letting on that God isn't in fact guiding him at all!
To be honest though, I don't believe in God, but if one existed i'd fancy it would be the kind described on Futurama - only helping out when he's sure nobody is looking.
Re:This is blindingly obvious (Score:5, Funny)
If I pay you 10$ to vote for the great flying spaghetti monster, I want to know you did in fact vote as instructed, and not for the lazy ravioli monster.
Yeah that ravioli monster should be canned!
Oh really? (Score:5, Funny)
No one is going to dress up as a cardinal and sneak into the Sistine Chapel.
Challenge accepted!
Re:Oh really? (Score:5, Funny)
Dress up as The Spanish Inquisition . . . they won't be expecting that . . .