Gavin's Blog

A really bad piece of journalism here – it says very little about the issues, and fails to ask any hard questions.

Scary, scary stuff. How can the government continue with this e-voting nonsense?
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Avi Rubin [via Slashdot] with his thoughts on the new e-voting machines used in Baltimore. Excellent reading. It shows huge problems with the smart cards being used – if only Cullen would listen. Rubin concludes:

I continue to believe that the Diebold voting machines represent a huge threat to our democracy. I fundamentally believe that we have thrown our trust in the outcome of our elections in the hands of a handful of companies (Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S) who are in a position to control the final outcomes of our elections. I also believe that the outcomes can be changed without any knowledge by election judges or anyone else. Furthermore, meaningful recounts are impossible with these machines.

It’s now almost midnight, and I’ve been up since 5:00 a.m. I’m falling asleep as I type this, so I will end here. Good night.

MediaRights.org have a call to action here, raising all the appropriate questions.

Millions of American voters will use electronic voting systems when they cast their vote for president this year. Many of these machines will get their first test on March 2, Super Tuesday, when voters head to polls in ten states. If more states install these new machines, the repercussions for American democracy could be worse than any hanging chad.

Tell news executives today that the problem of e-voting is a story they can’t ignore.

The BBC have a somewhat ‘safe’ piece of journalism on the electronic voting saga ongoing in Ireland. It talks about tallymen, and the loss of the traditional voting count to electronic voting.

What crap.

Nothing about the level of media coverage and the volume of criticism. Little about the enormous level of hostility to e-voting, and little on the justified position of requesting a paper trail to be added. Oh and the problems of e-voting worldwide are not mentioned.

Surely the BBC could come up with something more substantial?

I was on Irish national radio last night, only my second time – you can listen here.

Download or open. I’m on around the 41st minute, but listen to the whole thing, it’s interesting stuff.

Dick O’Brien over at Back Seat Drivers had a listen, and says I’ve been playing a stormer. Cheers Dick!

Excellent stuff on Vincent Browne tonight – yours truly has been contacted to possibly contribute. The government are running for the hills today it seems – Bertie Ahern was waffling as ever.

Update: I was on the VB show – I will put a link up as soon as the online version becomes available. I tried to get my strong views across, but its hard to do in 30 seconds. LOL.

Ok, it’s been updated – click here(Real Player required). I think I am on after about 30 mins. This link will die within about 24 hours.

Adrian Colley of the ICTE posts a comprehensive review of the outright lies spouted by our own Irish government. I hear such bullshit from Irish ministers on the radio, especially the shite on the Vincent Browne show last night – it’s nice to have a document that roundly and decisively dismisses the government propaganda.

More was on Pat Kenny today, listen with Real Player here:

Important stuff in California:

Late last week, California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley said that additional security measures will be taken by county elections officials to avoid problems with computerized voting machines, whose security and reliability has been questioned in a number of recent studies. As part of the measures, counties will have to keep images of each ballot cast on record; post voting results on every machine at each precinct for public display; and prepare a voting equipment security plan for review by state officials. The directives prohibit attaching the machines to the Internet.

California is in part reacting to a finding by computer scientists hired by Johns Hopkins’ Information Security Institute, which found that Maryland’s electronic voting machines, made by Diebold Election Systems, were easy prey for hackers. Many California precincts use the same voting system. Last year, Shelley took the first steps toward ensuring accuracy by requesting that California’s electronic voter systems provide voters with a verifiable paper trail, designed to validate that votes have been recorded properly. The technology to implement a paper trail is being developed.

Brillant article from Stanford:

“The votes of we, the people, are now the secrets of corporations,” said Faye Anderson, a Stanford Law School graduate and the writer and producer of “Counting on Democracy,” a nationally televised documentary about the 2000 Florida presidential election. Anderson was one of five speakers who examined the problems of electronic voting machines in a panel discussion hosted last night by the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.

The brave new world of official Internet voting got its launch here last week.

Unlike, say, taking a walk on the moon, the voting-by-computer experience was neither exciting nor memorable. Describing it as unremarkable would be inaccurate: It was remarkable for what it was not.

Shame she called it “Internet voting”.

More than 61% of the nation’s voters this fall will use electronically enhanced voting systems aimed at avoiding a repeat of the disputed 2000 election, but the changes won’t be enough if the tally is close, according to a new study.
The study released Thursday by the political consulting company, Election Data Services, said 50 million voters, or 28.9%, will use touchscreen, ATM-style machines to cast their ballots — an increase from 12.5% in 2000.

About 55.7 million, or 32.2%, will turn in paper ballots with filled-in ovals similar to SAT tests that will be read by optical scan equipment. That’s up from 29% in 2000.

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry Ice Cream, is launching a grass-roots campaign to require paper receipts for all electronic voting machines.

The campaign, run by Cohen’s Web-based group TrueMajority, kicks off Tuesday in Washington. About 400,000 people have already joined the group, though.

Cohen and computer security expert Dan Wallach hope to convince legislators to require a paper trail before the fall election. So far, only California has ordered vendors, including Green-based Diebold Inc., to print ballots for every voter.

At the next European Parliament elections in June, Ireland’s voters might find themselves registering their choice with the push of a button rather than a stroke of a pen — a change which has traditionalists fuming.

Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen, whose remit also takes in elections, has insisted that the so-called “e-voting system”, being introduced at a cost of around 35 million euros (45 million dollars), will improve democracy.

By using a special voting machine rather than the usual method of — sometimes imprecisely — placing crosses next to candidates’ names, errors could be eliminated, Cullen told the Dail, Ireland’s parliament.

“For reasons such as confusing handwriting, a mistake in numbering, or the failure to make sure the ballot paper was properly stamped, thousands of people who made the time to participate in an election (have) had their votes cast aside,” he said.

It has recently come to light that despite the assurances given by Minister Cullen T.D. – “The equipment and software for the voting machines has been tested by two international institutes for compliance with internationally accepted standards” – the reports themselves are of questionable relevance. Having previously cited 6 such reports, the clarification that there are infact only two (reports) is a new departure for the Minister.