Bruce Schneier speaks on anonymity and other issues involving the future of voting. "The goal of any voting system is to establish the intent of the voter, and transfer that intent to the vote counter. Amongst a circle of friends, a show of hands can easily decide which movie to attend. The vote is open and everyone can monitor it. But what if Alice wants Charlie's Angels and Bob wants 102 Dalmatians? Will Alice vote in front of his friends? Will Bob? What if the circle of friends is two hundred; how long will it take to count the votes? Will the theater still be showing the movie? Because the scale changes, our voting methods have to change.
Anonymity requires a secret ballot. Scaling and speed requirements lead to mechanical and computerized voting systems. The ideal voting technology would have these four attributes: anonymity, scalability, speed, audit, and accuracy--direct mapping from intent to counted vote."
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