An op-ed in today’s NYTimes by William Poundstone about how the web can be used during an election to prevent election fraud. As the article describes a computer scientist and a mathematician “have proposed an ingenious method that would combine paper ballots and a Web site to achieve greater ballot security than is possible with paper or software alone.” (Read the full article.) I am not sure how feasible this is or whether it will ever be achieved but I am intrigued by this combination of traditional voting booths being used in conjunction with the web – leading to greater transparency and hopefully minimizing fraud, particularly since electronic voting machines appear to be so vulnerable to being hacked.

Just another example of how the web is changing things in fundamental ways.