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Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea

Tom Scott · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Security & hackingUS politics & electionsCryptography

What it is

Tom Scott explains why electronic voting is a bad idea. Elections must be trusted by everyone and attacks on software scale in ways attacks on paper do not, so open source or blockchain fixes do not solve it.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN treats it as the go-to layperson-friendly argument against e-voting and links it in nearly every voting-technology thread.

  • 11 people recommended it
  • 11 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “Tom Scott still has the best argument against e-voting IMO [1].”

    Elections only count if everybody can believe the results.

    greenduck, 2020-11 · Strong recommendation · in “Let's put e-voting where it belongs: on the trash-heap of bad ideas (2016)”

  2. “Tom Scott made an excellent summary of why electronic voting is a bad idea”

    Covers open source and blockchain as proposed e-voting fixes.

    Qub3d, 2021-01 · Strong recommendation · in “Dominion Voting Systems Sues Rudy Giuliani”

  3. “remains the most convincing argument to me that it's a bad idea”

    Digital exploits scale far better than attacks on paper elections.

    space_fountain, 2021-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Blockchain voting is overrated among uninformed but underrated among informed”

  4. “Tom Scott provided an excellent explanation of why electronic voting is a terrible idea.”

    Excellent explanation of why electronic voting is terrible.

    david-gpu, 2025-07 · Strong recommendation · in “US companies, consumers are paying for tariffs, not foreign firms”

  5. “I'll let Tom Scott take it”

    Explains why elections differ from reversible bank transactions.

    roywiggins, 2020-03 · Recommendation · in “Detailed audit of Voatz' voting app confirms security flaws”

  6. “Here's Tom Scott with a great explanation of the basics.”

    Great explanation of the basics against electronic voting.

    kfrzcode, 2020-08 · Recommendation · in “USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System”

  7. “a compelling, layperson-accessible argument against electronic voting”

    Compelling, layperson-accessible argument against electronic voting.

    lukifer, 2021-02 · Recommendation · in “YouTubers have to declare ads. Why doesn't anyone else? [video]”

  8. “Obligatory Tom Scott videos”

    V__, 2022-01 · Recommendation · in “It’s not still the early days of blockchain”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: e-voting, election security, tom scott, paper ballots, blockchain voting, trust

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