E-Voting Report Finds Problems with Modern Elections

JonRob writes "The Open Rights Group has released a report on challenges faced by voting technology. Using the May 2007 Scottish/English elections as a testbed, researchers have collated hundreds of observations into a verdict on voting in the digital age. 'The report provides a comprehensive look at elections that used e-counting or e-voting technologies. As a result of the report's findings ORG cannot express confidence in the results for the areas we observed. This is not a declaration we take lightly but, despite having had accredited observers on location, having interviewed local authorities and having filed Freedom of Information requests, ORG is still not able to verify if votes were counted accurately and as voters intended.' The report is available online in pdf format for download."

Comments

Re:whats wrong with paper tickets anyway?

[gurps_npc]

Chads

Long history of people cheating them (While the current system sucks, a combo of electtronic + paper if properly done, can double our chances of catching fraud)

Takes too long to count.

Takes up a lot of space.

Costs a lot more money.

If someone is removed from the ballot, we have to reprint, which may not happen in time

Delivery must be assured with enough to all, which means a lot of waste

Blind people have issues

People that don't read english have issues

Ballot design for large number of possible candidates - people seriously want to be the guy on the top of the list, it gives a small, but real boost to their numbers

Oh wait, you just wanted ONE issue. Hm. Hard too choose just one.

Re:whats wrong with paper tickets anyway?

[drsquare]

No, disenfranchisement is when your vote isn't counted, not when you deliberately spoil the paper.

Great work Jason and everyone else

[GonzoTheGreat]

It is good to see the report out and see in measured words what those of us watching saw; that the preparation was below standard, procedures far from robust and the systems more black box than the public, candidates and parties happy to cope with.
I was proud to be part of this observation team and am looking forward to the next project I can give time to.

If anyone here wants to support the Open Rights Group either financially or buy volunteering to join in in further projects, scoot on over to http://www.openrightsgroup.org/support-org and sign up!