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British E-Voting Pilots Announced
rimberg writes "The Department for Constitutional Affairs has announced it is going to trial Electronic voting using the internet and/or telephone. Bridget Prentice, Elections Minister at the department said 'We need to make sure that people can vote in more convenient ways consistent with a modern lifestyle. [...] More and more people, and particularly young people, are using the internet everyday. We need to see if we can use this to encourage people even more to participate in the democratic process.' The Open Rights Group (Think British EFF) have responded by saying 'E-voting threatens the integrity of our elections and we oppose its use in our democracy.'"
I do definitely plan to vote against Labor in the next election.
... now if only I didn't live in the US!
British E-Voting Pilots Announced
I was wondering when they'd let Otto do something more than just fly the plane.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I hope they open up the code so people can see how it works (or fails to work). A paper or electronic receipt system would be crucial, as stated time and time again.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Ironically that's also the only candidate worth voting for.
Has anyone ever come up with one really good reason why a paper record of all votes is a bad idea?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
e-voting is unsuitable for anything more serious than who people think will supplant Britney Spears as the next queen of teen pop.
Diebold voting is a fraud, and it happens right in front of the user, on a dedicated machine. The voter can't even see their marked ballot go into a container for verification in the event of computer fraud! It's a sham.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Now when someone tries to cast a vote from home on their spyware-riddled PC, later to find out it wasn't counted or cast incorrectly, then what? Or worse a whole bunch of voters are disenfranchised and don't even know it because of their clunky equipment.
Sorry fellas, you have to leave the internet out of this idea for now. Get the bugs worked out of the stand-alone electronic voting machines first.
All I have to say is my 2 million zombie controlled pc's will be voting for myself in the next election.
Vote By Mail has been a huge success here in Oregon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting/
The founders of the United States intentionally avoided letting people vote directly on legislation in order to avoid mob justice and ensure that the law was formed by those with at least some training in principles of governance. You'd let people vote directly on a war? Remember that the U.S. initiative against Iraq was helped by the confusion in the popular mind that the 9/11 hijackers had significant ties to Iraq. If the public is emotionally stirred up and ignorant enough, all kinds of bad things can happen if you give them the change to go wild. Furthermore, the people would instantly vote away their liberties if they thought it would gain them some security, and they would then turn on that portion of the population which rejected calls for tighter restrictions on whatever matters.
I can't wait until Perl Script wins a seat in Parliament, or perhaps even position as Prime Minister!
We don't really get a voice anyway in our two-party (of any power) state. No proportional representation, no referenda on issues (despite being promised them, for, say, the Euro), and a political system that's gamed to work in one way whoever gets into power.
Let's face it.. we've reached a reasonably happy status quo with the current system and nothing too shocking happens under it. The problems we're having now are little different to those of ten or twenty years ago, and the average Brit has just as little say on matters as they ever have. This has led to a disillusioned populace that isn't really THAT interested in voting. I don't vote either, because it a) would have no effect, and b) all the parties look the same and are likely to lie and change their policies once they get in anyway (like Labour did).
Perhaps the dangers of electronic voting are worth it because our current system is so ineffectual. The room for abuse of electronic voting is no worse than the abuse of the entire system of government going on now.
"The hounourable Prime Minister Goatse man of the GNAUK Party wishes to have the floor"
Monstar L
"We need to make sure that people can vote in more convenient ways consistent with a modern lifestyle."
We are trying to make voting as convenient as buying a bag of crisps. why?
If someone can't be bothered to walk or drive half a mile to a polling station and put a cross in a box, do they really *care* who they are voting for? Far too many people treat voting flippantly (I don't like the look of him, I never vote for a woman, He has horrible hair etc) as it is. Would we be any worse of if voters had to take a simple test before voting? If you can't name the leaders of the main 3 parties, and pick their faces out of a lineup, are you really informed enough about the issues to vote sensibly?
Politicians in the UK panic about low turnout and think its because voting is hard. Its not, its just that a
First-Past-The Post system means that most of us have wasted votes, even if the main 2 parties were different, which they aren't.
Proportional representation FTW.
Just a thought.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Most people are really dumb.
Deleted
--Cynic Central
Hahhaahha. Ouch, thank you for correcting. My typo bad. I did mean distributed denial of service. Er, my Engleesh she not so good, here in Nigeria the schools suck. Please send money to me by Western Union, I guarantee terrific election results.
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FairTax baby!