Seeking The Source For Ireland's E-Voting System

WeeBull writes "Michael Cunningham from p45.net tried to request 'the source code of the electronic voting system first used in Ireland's May 2002 general election, plus any supporting technical documentation supplied to the Department of Environment and Local Government including the functional specifications' under Ireland's Freedom of Information legislation. The result wasn't what he expected ..."

Comments

Expectations

[isorox]

The result wasn't what he expected

You mean he got everything he asked for, overnight, with no questions asked?

Re:Expectations

[moonbender]

I know you were kidding, but for the sake of the people who haven't read the article (yet) - I know I was annoyed the Slashdot article ends without actually saying what this is about.
What he expected was that a) the government would hand over the source code or b) the government would find some excuse (e.g. security through obscurity) to not reveal the source. Well, it turns out the government doesn't have the source code: "The source code is held by the Nedap/Powervote [sic] and is not available in the Department of the Environment and Local Government."

Re:Expectations

[blibbleblobble]

Why not, for the sake of simplicity, just take all the ballot-papers, ship them off to a company in the Netherlands, and they can phone us and tell us who won the election? Does anyone else see a problem with this method of vote-counting?

Given that there is a problem with such a system, how about shipping all of the votes off to a secret black box designed and built by a company in the Netherlands, which phones up a central computer and tells us who won the election?

There's a reason that votes are counted in public, and it's not just the entertainment value.

Re:Expectations

[JeebusJones]

With regards the voting in public...There are specific provisions in Irish law that means that any interested party is allowed and to be fully facilitated in the inspection of the entire voting process, to which there interest pertains. For the proposes of this law this means A candidate or his election agents, and he may only inspect the process in the constituency that he is interested in.

Just before the last general election, I mentioned this to a party worker of the then Attorney General (he is now minister for justice), and was brushed aside. I also mentioned this to a friend of mine who is a labour party activist and normally acts as an election agent for some prominent TD's. He was more interested but when he queried HQ he was brushed aside.

So the solution is this, run as a TD or councillor (or president), and then demand the source code before counting proceeds. If you don't get it bring them to the high court. I know of a few barristers who are very unhappy with e-voting, for constitutional reasons, who could help you out.

By the way, currently many smaller parties run candidates in areas the know they will lose in simply to inspect the voting process. This is so they can gain data as to what areas are voting for what party, What the spoiled votes are saying etc.

JJ

Now that's creepy.

[JanusFury]

They don't even have the source code to software they used to run their elections?

Doesn't that mean that IF there was any fraud during the elections, that it is now impossible to prove whether or not it had to do with the software? Since the government doesn't have the actual code, any code they get from the authors in the future cannot be proven to be the code used in the election...

What a mess.

Re:Now that's creepy.

[afidel]

While it can't be proven all one would need to do is ask for the compile options, compile it with the same compiler and then compare the compiled version to the one they have from the election (assuming that they do have a copy, which they possibly do not considering that it appears they merely use the machines from this election software firm.) I believe that like encryption election code is one area where full public disclosure is absolutly necessary to assure that they system is operating as expected. The fact that the election commision in Ireland handed the auditing over to a private company is sure lunacy.

Re:Now that's creepy.

[Timesprout]

Apparently there were several audits performed and I believe the source was available under NDA to the govt. Next time they will be entitled to distribute the source if they so desire.

this was the govt's response to a series of questions in the Dail

Security and integrity have been paramount in the design, testing and implementation of the electronic voting and counting system. Original tender submissions were assessed and the successful solution selected on the basis of, inter alia, functionality and product quality including hardware and software security and application of the count rules as in the case of a paper ballot. Detailed functional specifications, likewise, made extensive reference to security aspects of the system. The testing programme has been thorough and involved independent examination of the voting machine and voting machine software by a number of recognised international test institutes and private companies. The voting machine hardware and software has been tested by PTB, the National Institute for Science and Technology in Germany. Separate reports have been prepared by two test institutes in the Netherlands: TNO subjected the voting machine to a range of environmental tests and KEMA Quality BV tested the machine for compliance with international safety standards. An Irish company, PMI Software Ltd. carried out an architectural and code review of the system software. My Department also engaged the Electoral Reform Society in the UK, which has extensive experience of STV election counts, to test the software against its database of over 300 elections. The count software was, in addition, tested for functionality and accuracy both by my Department and a number of Dáil returning officers. Finally, in relation to vote counting, the system can produce, after the votes are mixed, vote tables to enable progress of the count to be monitored and also to trace a vote at any stage of the count. If necessary, following a High Court order in an election petition case, the system can also produce a ballot paper, with preferences, to allow a manual count to be carried out. At the general election and referendum pilots in 2002, the software was used under license from the supplier and at present, the source code is not available to the public. The software is currently being modified for use at the European and local elections in June 2004 and when this work has been completed and tested, I will give careful consideration to the making of the source code available. The Zerflow report, which was the subject of recent media reporting, was commissioned by my Department as an addition to the principal reports to which I have referred. The company was requested to carry out a security assessment of the procedures to be applied in the use of voting machines in polling stations to ensure that procedures proposed by the Department were adequate. The issues raised by the Zerflow report, which dealt mainly with possible threats to the external physical features of the voting machine, were assessed by my Department and by Nedap/Powervote - the machine manufacturers. The assessment by both was that the main scenario identified was implausible and that the likelihood of its occurrence without detection was extremely remote. I should emphasise that the version of the voting machine used in this country has more security features than the versions used in the Netherlands and Germany where the issues raised by Zerflow have not been identified in any risk assessments. In addition, the integrity of the Irish voting process is protected on polling day by a set of protocols operated by polling staff and the Gardai under the supervision of the returning officer. My Department will continue to keep these arrangements under review and will update advice provided to returning officers, as necessary, including advice in relation to the presence of audio, video or

Voting Machines in America

[westyvw]

Americans have too been scammed by voting machines owned by corporations. Go figure.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/11_10_02/Secret _G roup_Manipulates/secret_group_manipulates.html

http://www.talion.com/election-machines.html

http://pub103.ezboard.com/fsoldiervoicefrm4.show Me ssage?topicID=7.topic

Wow.. this is unusual

[SeanTobin]

You mean a company or government actually bought a piece of software without the source code!

What kind of world are we living in?

Re:Wow.. this is unusual

[TheToon]

The voting system is the backbone of a democratic system. This is the number one indicator that a nation has taken the step forward and joined the democratic fold.

It needs to be auditable. It needs to be verifyable. To the full extent.

Look at the mess in Florida in the last US presidential elections. The system there worked as everything was on paper, so they just needed to go through all the ballot notes and re-count and re-evaluate them. After the extensive re-counts and press and public auditing of the result, it was found to be correct.

How can you do that audit if you don't know the system? And the only way to know a computer based system is to have all the information about it available, including source code.

Paper and Pencil

[jeti]

Over in Germany, we use some of the least advanced voting machinery
imagineable. Paper and pencil. Votes are counted by hand, with peer
review, faxed in and published in detail in the newspapers.

So far we didn't have any real problems with fraud, ambiguous votes or
anything like that. And the results are usually in by the evening or the next
day.We have like 70 million inhabitants and I don't see a reason why this
shouldn't scale up.

So is there any real reason to replace that with a system that is not
transparent and where you have to blindly trust some tech companies?

Re:Paper and Pencil

[Timesprout]

Ah that might explain why the unknown Hans Lederhosen Beckenbauer was elected by a landslide majority in Dublin.

Minutes of Selection Committee choosing e-voting

[sould]

I've just found this document - which appears to be the minutes of an Irish government selection commmittee debating the merits (amongst other things, search for neda) of this system.

Interesting quote: "The integrity of the electoral process will be assured for both the electorate and candidates"

Not all of the electorate it would seem.

Further on in the document
[emphasis mine]
"(2) No equipment may be approved for the purposes of subsection (1) unless a full technical description of the said equipment (including all source code and information regarding independent testing and verification relating thereto) has been laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and a resolution approving a draft of the order approving the said equipment has been passed by each such House.".

Intesting hey?

Thats just one of the committee's opinion - and it looks like they got slapped down - but if I was Irish, I'd be finding out who this Mr Gilmore was & voting for him.

Re:Voting Machines in America (clickable html)

[DeadSea]

Americans have too been scammed by voting machines owned by corporations. Go figure.

Secret Group Manipulates Vote Machines - The widespread use of electronic voting machines has severely undermined the integrity of elections in the United States. Behind the companies that make the voting machines is a small and secretive group of men, including a well-known U.S. senator.

Voting machine companies: Ownership disclosure, "private" vote-counting codes, potential for manipulation - This is an article about just three things: disclosure, conflict of interest and potential for manipulation. It is not a conspiracy theory or a political point of view. I think you'll agree with me: We don't care who wins the election, as long as it's who was VOTED FOR.

Senator Hagel campaign treasurer owns voting machine co. - Election Systems & Software, the firm whose machines were involved in the 2002 flubbed Florida primary election(4)-- and the recent huge flub in Dallas, where early voting had to be shut down when machines kept registering Democratic votes as Republican (See the 31 mistakes link, top of page) and the company that now makes the voting machines for most of America--is a private company that does not like to tell the public who owns it.

software used in belgians elections

[bowa]

all sourcecode of the three systems used is available for download and public review on the site of the federal government.

http://www.verkiezingen.fgov.be/Nouveau/NieuwNl/Do kunnl/broncodes/Cdoku7nnl.htm

(clik on one of the three software systems and then on 'Hier')

In Belgium we have source code... so what?

[dglaude]

In Belgium some citizen had to fight in court to get the source code of the election program beeing published.

In 1991 nobody except private company had the code.
In 1999 official expert asked for the state to own the code and suggest publishing it.
In 2000 they published partial code and documentation with most important security part removed.
In May 2003 they published full code (but no doc) of new system (AES added).

Feel free to download analyse and report problem to us

We have no way to check if that code was really in use. Because they use the same floppy disk to boot the system and to save the result, we have no way to make sure what was on the floppy at the begining of the election day. This is explained here but only in french.

But having the code is not enough... actually Richard Stallman had something to say about Free Software not being enough.

Now if you are Belgian and unhappy about the status of our election system, you can join or contact PourEVA.

I personally believe that if we want to reduce the repetitive task of counting the ballot, we could use optical scanning (and make test manual recount). But we should never put a computer between our vote and the expression of our vote. Paper and Pen rules.

More Details

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose more details of the electoral system are in order...
For General Elections (to the Dail - main parliment) Ireland has a multiseat-Proportional Representaion election system - meaning there are more than one seats available in each constituency.
Firstly each voter can vote in order of preference for every candidate - For example say there are 10 candidates for three seats (my case last election) You can vote in order of 1 to 10.

PR works by counting first how many ballots are cast, dividing by some ammount (IIRC Number of seats + 1). This is set as the "quota". Then counting takes place. Once a candiate reaches the quota they are deemed elected. Then the amount of votes over the quota is distributed to the other candates, going on the next choice of the voters concerned.

If no one reaches the quota, the person(s) with the least votes accrued currently are eliminated, and their votes are distributed to the remaining candidates.

This is a complicated system and electronic counting would be an advantage - sometimes it can take up to a week to recount a constituncy, last time there were three recounts in one case, with the final seat going to the candidate with three more votes than the other!

Electronic voting was used last time in three places, with the results out the night of the election, rather than a day or two later. This lead to some problems when a sitting TD (equiv MP) lost her seat, and was told rather cruely, normally you get the results of each count so you are prepared for the result, long in advance of the declaration.

In my opinion, ideally Electronic voting is the way to go. However I don't trust the machines or the companies who make them, regardless of the published nature of the code. It would be very difficult to catch fraud taking place, and personally I like the current method (pen and paper). It is very satisifing putting a 10 beside the candidate who you hate :-)

tom.

in other news

[SHEENmaster]

the United States of America just switched to an electronic voting system.

In an unrelated matter, Bill Gates is now President despite not even being present on the ballot or this being an election year. George Bush was called a "sore loser" by the media; why can't he just accept that the recount clearly shows Gates ahead by 8 million votes?

Australian system source code

[jrst]

The web site and source code for the Australian system referred to in the article is worth a look.

It's quite simple. Intentionally, as the ACT states in their design goals (http://www.elections.act.gov.au/EVACS.html). The source includes the client and server application components--160 files and 12739 lines of very straigtforward C. (Of course, that doesn't include the OS/libs.)

I've browsed through a fair bit of the code, and everything I've seen is GPL. Ensuring accessibility to software used for public elections is, I think, a Very Good Thing. (I wouldn't mind seeing a law that required all election software be GPL'd.)

Keep paper but use technology

[jdesbonnet]

The sensible thing to do is to use technology to make the existing system more efficient. Ie use scanners and optical recognition to count the ballot papers. Fall back to traditional counting if there is any doubt or if the technology fails.

The Irish Lotto (nation Lottery) is an example of such a paper/electronic hybrid system in operation.

The current system is analogous to having our votes shipped abroad, counted using an unknown system, by persons unknown with no outside review allowed. Having all the votes shredded and then a final answer announced with no possibility for recount.

Its amazing, when it comes to technology people in general are so clueless. Even very fundamental changes in the workings of our democracy can be changed with very little resistence.