[conspire] Alameda County Overseas Ballot QR Code

[Nick Moffitt]

I'm not sure what the ballots look like for the in-person voting, but the process for overseas voters last registered in California (of which I am one) involves filling out a web form that generates a PDF with a QR code alongside the plain-text descriptions.

I scanned it with my LineageOS phone, using Binary Eye from the F-Droid app store, and it gave me the following plain-text record (numbers elided with octothorpes to preserve my privacy where relevant):

v:1.2
bs:BT1
pid:214500
id:#############.###
1:2
2:##


Here are the fields as they line up with the plain-text data on the ballot:

	v: I expect this is a version identifier for the record format.  v1.2 here, at best guess.
	bs: The ballot identified itself as form "BT1"
	pid: Precinct ID.  Looking at https://data.acgov.org/datasets/0adc67d2ddee49358af287a1c12f5e6b_0/explore?location=37.847229%2C-122.244058%2C15.65 you'll see that this is a region near Rockridge BART station, where I last lived.  I think it's actually next door to the precinct I used to vote in person 20 years ago, but it's what's on my voter records so I don't expect any problems.
	id: This very much looks like some sort of index for my voter record.  It's a massive fixed(?) point number, if you note the three digits to the right of the decimal.
	1: Ballot question number one: whether to recall the Governor.  Values are 1 for yes and 2 for no.  I make no secret of voting no on this.
	2: If question 1 passes, whom do you vote to replace the Governor?  Elided mainly as any specific choice is a distraction, but you'll note that the options run into the double-digits here.  I would hope that the order is randomised in some way that the id field can be correlated with the value of this to determine the correct candidate's name.