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Digital Planet: Why do we vote with paper in the age of the smart phone?

Factual: Science & Nature

Why do we vote with paper in the age of the smart phone?

27/10/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Why do we vote with paper in the age of the smart phone?

Most voting in elections worldwide is done with paper ballots, and for good reason.

Most voting in elections worldwide is done with paper ballots, and for good reason. Digital Planet explores how online or machine voting is open to hacking.

Despite a pandemic, nearly everyone voting in the upcoming US election will do so with a tick in a box on a piece of paper. They may post their ballot, or go in person to a voting station, but the process is still physical. Why? Presenter Gareth Mitchell will be asking election voting advisor Susan Greenhalgh. 
Despite the prevalence of paper, there are some voting machines in the USA, Beatrice Atobatele tells us why she bought one online and how hacking into it could help to make the coming US election more secure. 
Also on the programme, data is central to nearly everything in computing today. It presents issues, but imagine if you could train your machines on clean, orderly, high quality data? Well a new technique to generate clean data artificially has been released, open source, by MIT. We explore what this could mean with Nicolai Baldin, the CEO of the London company ‘Synthesized’. 

(Image: Getty Images) 

Presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert comment from Bill Thompson 
Produced by Rory Galloway 

Studio Manager: Giles Aspen

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Why do we vote with paper in the age of the smart phone?

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