Russia has invented a way to vote with banknotes

Would be the most reliable known

An inventor from the city of Shchekino, Tula Region, proposed voting with banknotes. The other day he defended his development with a patent of the Russian Federation.

The inventor notes that the existing methods of electronic voting have certain vulnerabilities. In particular, computer-assisted voting can fail due to system failures, which has happened repeatedly. And since this organization of the process does not use paper ballots, a failure can lead to the loss of votes.

In addition, data transmitted over the Internet, even though encrypted, can be accessed by unauthorized people. And given that elections are not held every day, to put it mildly, the organization of polling stations with high-tech equipment costs a pretty penny. In addition, the modern Kulibin argues that with the remote transmission of votes using personal computers and mobile devices, voting actually ceases to be secret.

Quite another thing is voting with banknotes. First, specially selected banknotes are transferred to the election commissions. Their series and numbers are entered into the database, after which they are mixed in special devices. Thus, a registered voter receives a banknote randomly, it is impossible to identify him by it. Then, on election day, the voter comes to the bank and votes using a payment terminal connected to the vote counting center.

Beforehand, special software is loaded into the terminal. The terminal switches to election mode, causing its camera to turn off, allowing the voter to remain anonymous. When a banknote is immersed in a bill acceptor, a voting form appears on the screen, with the help of an information input device, the voter casts his vote.

Since banking networks are much better protected than the Internet, the transfer of data over them is safer, the inventor believes. And due to the fact that bills have several degrees of protection, it is impossible to fake them so well that the bill acceptor “did not notice” this.

True, such a system can lead to illegal enrichment of unscrupulous citizens. However, this issue can also be resolved, because the database will display which banknotes were not used for their intended purpose, that is, they can be tracked.

The opinion of the Russian CEC regarding the patented initiative is not yet known.