[Foundation-l] Raw data of 2009 Board election ballots

[Nathan]

On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Tim Starling <tstarling at wikimedia.org>wrote:

> Let me say for the record that I'm not at all happy with this data
> being released, since it allows vote-buying. Even if the numbers given
> by voters are reduced to the smallest values which still give the same
> rankings, with 18 candidates there are 18 factorial possible
> orderings. That number is sufficiently higher than the number of
> voters that a party wishing to buy votes can specify a voter-specific
> ticket with some random rankings, and be reasonably assured that if
> that ticket appears in the final unencrypted dump, then the contract
> was fulfilled and money can be transferred to the voter.
>
> In 2008 the unencrypted votes were rapidly released, but I was not
> involved in that decision.
>
> This year, I don't think I have been asked directly to provide this
> data, but it seems that the Board and election committee is in favour
> of it being released, and nobody else has offerred to produce the
> data. So I just wrote the relevant script, and am now testing it, so
> the results will be available to the committee and the Board shortly.
>
> -- Tim Starling
>

Contrast your comments with those of Greg Maxwell earlier in this thread;
the conclusion I draw is that while releasing the raw data might provide
confirmation for anyone involved in buying votes, such vote-buying is
unlikely to significantly alter the election outcome.

Nathan