At What Cost electronic voting?

national | politics / elections | press release

Tuesday February 10, 2004 06:18

by Andrew Ó Baoill - At What Cost?

evote at funferal dot org

Campaign aims to enable grassroots action

At What Cost?' is a campaign against the introduction of electronic voting in Ireland. We make use of the opportunities provided by the internet to raise awareness of the issue and to provide tools and information that enable individuals to campaign on a local level.

Our goals are to:
- raise awareness of electronic voting, and the serious issues associated with it, amongst the public;
- provide resources online to support campaign activities and encourage and facilitate local action on this issue;
- co-ordinate mass action protesting electronic voting.

Voting is central to our democratic structures. Because of this, the concerns raised by computer scientists and others in relation to the need for a paper audit trail must be taken seriously - instead of being dismissed out of hand as the government is doing.

Additionally, there are dangers in adopting any system that will necessarily be dominated by experts, forcing lay persons to leave oversight of this democratic institution in the hands of these experts.

Finally, many of the claims made by the government do not stand up to scrutiny. They talk about cost effectiveness. No cost benefit analysis has been performed, and it now appears the system will be considerably more expensive than the manual system. They talk of ease of use. No usability tests have been performed and the system will not be accessible to the blind! Even the argument that the system will demonstrate that Ireland is on the cutting edge of technology (should our electoral process really be used as a PR gimmick?) are shown up by the fact that the counting software operates on a Windows 98 system and uses MS Access - which even Microsoft claims should not be used in such critical operations!

At What Cost will be issuing regular press updates. If you want to ensure that you receive these, let us know: [email protected]

Members of the public who want to support the campaign, or who merely want to be informed of developments should register on the website.

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Comments (4 of 4)

Cullen's arrogant reluctance to impove the system.

by Pax

Wed Feb 11, 2004 13:11

I cannot understand how a democratically elected minister in the form of ex-PD now FF Martin Cullen (and FF's Director of Elections!) can accept the current dangerously flawed system.

On Saturday View on radio1 an american expert in electronic voting outlined how it is essential to have a paper audit. She even told of how many american states are now Retro-fitting their non paper audit machines with ticket/reciept systems behind a glass screen ( i.e you vote electronically and you can confirm what you've done immediately from the ticket, if the electronic process is corrupted for whatever reason YOU will know)

At what cost [ahem] is this retrofitting?
A meager 50 dollars (39 euros) per machine, what a small price to pay for confidence in our democratic process. Compare this to the current costly and crass marketing campaign, of an unsafe system, coupled with leaflets showing a voter selecting an FF candidate!

I think Cullen may be too arrogant to turn on this one (remember his calling protesters to the incinerator in Cork, many of whom are mothers worried for the health of their children, as "childish", ironic given an ex-party member of his Minister McDowell is firmly opposed to an incinerator in his constituency).

When the democratic process itself is threatened, even by the majority that is elected, then the opposition becomes the true heirs of the democratic will of the people, therefore the opposition must make it clear, in a united front, how serious they are over this issue.
Other members of the government may then take Cullen aside and talk him out of the current approach

Pentagon E-Voting Program Drops out of the Race

by voter

Wed Feb 11, 2004 17:13

If it is not secure enough for the pentagon, then.....

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The Internet's role in campaigns and elections continues to grow, but security snags continue to mar e-voting efforts. Amid a public outcry over security, the Pentagon said it would pull the plug on its plan to let U.S. citizens living abroad cast their votes online in the upcoming presidential election.

Pulling the plug

by MMG

Wed Feb 11, 2004 21:46

I was listening to Joe Duffy on Friday 6th and a woman told of her personal encounter with the electronic voting machine. She went in to vote with her young child and while she was voting her kid pulled out the plug of the machine. It went completely blank and no one there knew what effect this would have . Would all the previous votes on the machine disappear or would the womans personal vote be messed up. Luckily the screen went back to where it was before but this just highlights how vulnerable the system is. Voting in elections and referenda are the only time we actually participate in this so-called democratic state. Votes are too imortant to be left in the responsibility of the dodgy machines.

The 2nd Dark Ages

by jeff

Fri Feb 13, 2004 17:34

Electronic voting is part of that- FF/PDs are THE party with THE financial backing behind them.Thus, they feel they are the wisest. So EV is likely to be tampered with to ensure a "wise" result.

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At What Cost electronic voting?

Comments (4 of 4)