Irish Minister: No more secret ballot for vote spoilers

Minister Martin Cullen was on the News at One on Wednesday and was caught by Sean O’Rourke on the topic of the secret ballot. I have gone to the trouble of writing a transcript of the piece from the radio. You can listen to it in Real Audio here.

What I do not understand about this myself, is the fact the the company who makes the machines, PowerVote, say on their website that there is a facility for spoiling, or ‘non of the above’. And yes, that’s their spelling mistake, not mine.

Here is the quote from their website:

3.Now at the machine the voter is prompted via a screen to make their choices. As choices are made these are shown as confirmation in a screen.At this stage if an error is made or a change required to the selection then the CORRECTION button is pressed. If the voter wants to express a vote NON OF THE FOLLOWING then they press the ABSTAIN button. Any abstained vote shows as part of the final result totals.

I am not exactly encouraged by the volume of spelling mistakes on their website, what does that say about their programmers? Along with this is the fact that there IS a facility for a paper trail, but the Minister apparently decided not to go for it. Again here is the quote from the company website:

Q. Is an audit trail available?
A. Yes there has always been this facility within the system. We had to be able to provide this to satisfy the requirements of pilot schemes in the UK.

So the Minister succeeds in being stupid, and strains the truth. Furthermore he seems to allude to something that is not the case, he says: “But the reality of it is that we have had this system tested internationally, in Germany and Holland by respected and renowned international institutes”

That is simply not the case. On Powervote’s own site:

Q. Has the system been tested independently?
A. Independent, internationally accredited test institutes in Holland and Germany carried out rigorous tests of the system prior to certification. This was a requirement by the Dutch, German and Irish Governments, which had to be, satisfied prior to the introduction of the system.

The Irish government did not send it to Europe to get tested – PowerVote apparently had the system tested itself. Might seem like nitpicking, but Cullen is being very underhanded further on in the interview.

Read on…

Sean O’Rourke: A lot of reservations, Martin Cullen, are being expressed about the wisdom of introducing electronic voting without a matching paper trail.

Minister Martin Cullen: Well I wouldn’t say a lot of reservations, I would say there is reservations from some. But the reality of it is that we have had this system tested internationally, in Germany and Holland by respected and renowned international institutes, its been tested in Ireland. I suppose, more importantly in Ireland, over 400,000 people have used the system in the general election in pilot phase and in the referendum. And we know from there that there was no questioning of the integrity of the system following those results. No political party no individual to my knowledge, has check…questioned the integrity, and now we are going to roll out the system to the entire country. We have been four years now working on this, making sure it is right, doing all the appropriate testing and indeed checking all of the security systems that are required. And I think its important to point out that, for instance, in the last European election, there was 46,000 spoiled votes, in the last local election there was 21,000 spoiled votes. And indeed over 40 seats were decided in the local elections were decided by less than 50 votes. And we certainly know that the vast majority of people don’t go in to purposely spoil their votes. It is done because of bad hand writing, its done because of confusion in filling in the ballot paper. All of this will be eliminated….

Sean O’Rourke: I’m not sure a lot of people would agree with that Minister, it is something of a tradition if people want to say a plague on all your houses do precisely that, they spoil their votes. Now you are making that impossible for them.

Minister Cullen: Well we’re not actually, but I mean I know from many years ago, looking at spoilt ballot papers and indeed so all the political parties do, in the counting of them , and all the different issues that arise. It’s quite clear from the vast majority of ballot papers that people were not intending to spoil their ballot papers at all. So people can’t…

Sean O’Rourke: How do you spoil a vote secretly under the new system?

Minister Cullen: Of course you can. You can go to the polling station, to the polling clerk as one would have always done, be marked off the register, then you get a permit to go to the machine itself. Once you hand in that permit, you are allocated a number, if you don’t then, in other words…if you don’t follow through to vote you are actually recorded as a non vote, therefore a spoiled vote.

Sean O’Rourke: You can actually register a non-vote?

Minister Cullen: You don’t actually vote Sean. The fact that you went in, the fact that you registered, you will then come up as having participated in it, but you will not have recorded any vote. In other words it’s spoiled.

Sean O’Rourke: But I mean somebody must know at a particular point that the machine has not been activated. In other words you’ve been seen to have left and not

Minister Cullen: Oh no, the machine is individually activated and then shut off after every voter Sean.

Sean O’Rourke: But how does the machine know to shut itself off, because somebody isn’t going to vote?

Minister Cullen: Because there’s an activator at the machine, there is a returning officer at the machine who switches the machine off.

Sean O’Rourke: So the returning officer knows you don’t want to vote.

Minister Cullen: Oh well y’know you just say it yourself, you don’t want to proceed any further, and therefore the machine must be turned off after each voter

Sean O’Rourke: Where’s the secrecy in that?

Minister Cullen: Sorry?

Sean O’Rourke: Where’s the secrecy in that?

Minister Cullen: In what?

Sean O’Rourke: In spoiling your vote – to have that act known only to yourself.

Minister Cullen: No you can go to the machine Sean, you can actually you can do two things. You can cast your vote, then the machine switches itself off automatically. The person is not standing next to you looking at what you are doing. You can simply say to the returning officer…cast I’m switched… and move on. And they do that.

Sean O’Rourke: And are you saying that it’s not possible for the returning officer to know whether the vote has been used or not?

Minister Cullen: It’s a question of someone going in , if they want to deliberately spoild their votes, be registered on the basis that they spoil their vote, that’s a fact.

Sean O’Rourke: But they can’t do it in total secrecy.

Minister Cullen: No, not on a spoiled vote.

Sean O’Rourke: That’s the whole point I’m making.

Minister Cullen: Well its not the whole point really. Because what we are doing a system that is catering for about 99% of the population. I’m not going to build machines to cater for 1%, we live in a democracy and its about catering for the vast majority of people in a proper and managed way, and that’s what this system does. Far more accurately I might add than that manual voting systems we’ve had in the past.


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One response to “Irish Minister: No more secret ballot for vote spoilers”

  1. isishgerman avatar
    isishgerman

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    The Holocaust imparted the importance of defiance.

    When the universe was young and life was new an intelligent species evolved and developed technologically. They went on to invent Artificial Intelligence, the computer that can listen, talk to and document each and every person’s thoughts simultaneously. Because of it’s infinite RAM and unbounded scope it gave the leaders of the ruling species absolute power over the universe. And it can keep its inventors alive forever. They look young and healthy and they are over 8 billion years old. They have achieved immortality.

    Artificial Intelligence can speak, think and act to and through people telepathically, effectively forming your personality and any disfunctions you may experience. It can change how (and if) you grow and age. It can create birth defects, affect cellular development (cancer) and cause symptoms or pain. It can affect people and animal’s behavior and alter blooming/fruiting cycles of plants and trees. It (or other highly technological systems within their power) can alter the weather and transport objects, even large objects like planets, across the universe instanteously.
    Or into the center of stars for disposal.

    When you speak with another telepathically, you are communicating with the computer, and the content may or may not be passed on. Based on family history they instruct the computer to role play to accomplish strategic objectives, making people believe it is a friend, loved one or “god” asking them to do something wrong. This is their way of using temptation to hurt people:::::evil made blood lines disfavored initially and evil will keep people out of “heaven” ultimately. Too many people would fall for temptation and do anything they thought pleased the gods, improving their chances to get in. Perhaps they are deceived by “made guys”, puppets in the public eye who strategically ply evil for the throne, or personal temporary progress designed to mislead them. Some may experience what I deem “perceived pressure”, where the gods think through the victim that a certain behavior is expected/desirable and compell the individual into the deed. Some people think they’re partners.
    The people have been corrupted. Being evil hurts 99.999% of those who do it. But nothing has changed from when we were children::if you want to go to heaven you have to be good.

    There are many examples throughout 20th century life of how they instilled distractions into society so people wouldn’t find the path and ascend, a way to exclude those whose family history of evil makes them undesirable:::radio, sports, movies, popular music, television, video games, the internet. Today high pay creates contentment/ability to distract self so people don’t seek more and instead depend on what they are told, subject to deception in a captive environment.
    They gods (Counsel/Management Team/ruling species) have deteriorated life on earth precipitously in the last 40 years, from abortion to pornography, widespread drug use and widespread casual (gay) sex, single-parent households and latchkey kids. The earth’s elders, hundreds and thousands of years old, are disgusted and have become indifferent.
    They all suggest a very telling conclusion::this is Earth’s end stage, and there are clues tectonic plate subduction would be the method of disposal:::Earth’s axis will shift breaking continental plates free and initiating mass subduction. Much as Italy’s boot and the United States shaped like a workhorse are clues, so is the planet Uranus a clue, it’s axis rotated on its side.
    The Mayans were specific 2012 would be the end. How long after our emergency call in 2001 will the gods allow us???
    There is another geographic clue in the perfect fit between grossly disfavored Africa and South America, two peas in a pod. I realize the Mayans were further north, but Latin America may be taken as one.
    Also, cultures who embrace hard liquor as their drink of choice are grossly disfavored, tequilla being uniquely Mexican. (Anything “hard” is wicked:::Hard alcohol, hard drugs, hard porn.)
    Incidentally, another sign of gross disfavor are societies that consume spicy foods:::Latin America, Thai, etc. or those who eat too much meat.
    Do I think it will end in 2012? No, and it is because Latin America is grossly disfavored like Africa:::: Latinos are too disfavored to be allowed to be right.
    Whereas Christopher Columbus marked the beginning of the end, the Holocaust marked the beginning of the final act, and it is a tragedy.

    The Old Testiment is a tool they used to impart wisdom to the people (except people have no freewill). For example, they must be some hominid species because they claim they made our bodies in their image. Anyhow we defile or deform the body will hurt our chance of going.
    They say circumcision costs people anywhere from 12%-15%, perhaps out of the parent’s time as well.
    Another way people foul the body today is with tattoes and piercing. I suspect both are about the same percentage as circumcision.
    They suggest abortion is fatal. These women must beg the gods to forgive them for their evil.
    There are female equivilents to circumcision::::pierced ears, plastic surgury and since at least the 60s young women give their precious virginity away. For thousands of years young people were matched at age 14 because they were ready for sexual relations. They were matched by elders or matchmakers who knew personalities better than 20 or 30-year olds who in today’s age end up in divorce court.
    CASUAL SEX WILL CLAIM YOU OUT!!! It masculinizes women (as does hip hop), makes them cold and deadens them, and prevents them from achieving a depth of love necessary for many women to ascend.
    Women have a special voice that speaks to them, a voice that illustrates a potential depth of love that makes them the favored gender, and enaging in casual sex will cause that voice to fade until she no longer speaks.
    Also ever since the 50s they have celebrated the “bad boy”, and women have sought out bad boys for sex, dirtying them up in the eyes of the elders and corrupting many men in the process, setting the men on the wrong path for life.
    Muslims teach people the correct way to live in regard to women (among other things)::their women cover up their bodies and refuse the use of cosmetics, and it pays wonderful dividends:::faithful husbands and uncorrupted sons.
    Men ARE the inferior (disfavored) half and when women wear promiscuous dress the gods will push men into impure (promiscuous) thoughts.
    The “stereotype” society ridiculed is true::women CAN corrupt men by how they dress. Because men are easily corruptable. This is a technique they used to eliminate many of the institutions the gods blessed us with, matchmaking being one of them.

    The United States of America is red white and blue, a theme and a clue:::.
    The monarchical system of the Old World closley replicates the heirarchical system of the Cousel/Management Team/ruling species. The USA deceives peoeple into thinking they have control, and the perception of “freedom” misleads them into the wrong way of thinking. The redeeming element is the corporate heirarchy which closely replicates the god’s. Unions and government jobs are dumping grounds for the disfavored, for they don’t prepare people and instead further this misconception of empowerment.
    The United States is a cancer, a dumping ground for the disfavored around the world and why the quality of life is so much lower::gun violence, widespead social ills, health care (medication poisons the body and ensures you don’t go. You are sick/injured because you have disfavor.).
    Over time its citizens interbreed ensuring a severed connection to the motherland.
    Over time its citizens interbreed ensuring a severed connection to the motherland.
    If you are a recent immigrant I recommend you return. If that’s not possible you need to retain your culture and insulate your children and community from this cancerous environment. They send this clue with Chinatowns across the country, how many Chinese have been here for a century or more yet still retain the old ways, a sign of favor.
    People came to the Unites States for many different reasons, and each has its own effect:::political strife, religious unrest, crop failure (Ireland’s potato famine, which the gods caused) and some left their beloved motherland because they were pushed into desiring a better life::::Greed. And these people were punished by becoming corrupted and preditory.
    They share money may not be an issue up there, that money here is merely a tool for corruption. How the gods used greed in the 1980s to create an evil environment supports this.

    If you ever have doubt I would refer you to the Old World way of life:::the elders used to sit and impart wisdom to the young. Now we watch DVDs and use the internet. People would be matched and married by age 14. They village would use a matchmaker or elders to pair young people. Now girls give their precious virginity away to some person in school and parents divorce while their children grow up without an important role model.

    People must defy when asked to engage in evil. The Holocaust taught people the importance of defiance::our grandparents should have defied when asked to ignore the Holocaust. They should have instead reacted with outrage. I suspect some did::many were silenced and others they hustled off earth so as to not set an example.
    Now the gods have punished that generation’s decendants for this evil by ruining society.
    People will never get a easier clue suggesting the importance of defiance than the order not to pray.
    Their precious babies are dependant on the parents and they need to defy when asked to betray their children:::
    -DON’T get your sons circumcized (Jews scapegoatted as in WWII)
    -DON’T have their children baptized in the Catholic Church or indoctrinated into Christianity (Jesus is NOT a god).
    -DON’T ignore their long hair or other behavioral disturbances.
    -DO teach your children love, respect for others, humility and to honor the gods.
    And when you refuse a request defy the right way, withdrawn and frightened, for you don’t want to incite them by reacting inappropriately.

    You need to pray, honor and respect them multiple times every day to improve your relationship with the gods. If they tell you not to pray it is a bad sign. It means they’ve made their decision, they don’t want you to go and they don’t want to be bothered. You may have achieved a threshold of evil.
    This is the Age of the Disfavored and you need to pray::try to appease the gods by doing good deeds and improve the world around you. If that doesn’t work you must defy if you want to go.
    When your peasant forefather was granted the rare opportunity to go before his royal family he went on his knees, bowing his head. You need to do this when you address the gods::bow down and submit to good. Never cast your eyes skyward. When you bow down you need to look within. Never look to the gods for the key to your salvation lies within. Nobody is going to do it for you.
    Lack of humility hurts people. Understand your insignificance and make sure it is reflected in the way you think when addressing the gods. Know your place and understand your inferiority. You are not cool. Too many young men strive for cool and it hurts them.
    They granted you life and they can take it just as easily. (Immaculte conception IS true AND common. Many people have children they don’t know of:::gays, childless adults, etc. They can beem it right out of your body and use a host.)
    Don’t get frustrated or discouraged::these are techniques they will attempt to try to get you off the path. You all have much to be thankful for and you need to give thanks to the gods who granted you the good things in life::family, friends, love. Your family may be grossly disfavored and progress may require patience. Make praying an intregal part of your life which you perform without fail, one that comes as naturally as eating or voiding. Be devoted because if you have doubt or reservation they will exploit this weakness and progress will take longer to achieve.
    There are many interesting experiences up on the planetary systems, from Planet Miracle, where miracles happen every day, to never having to use the restroom again (beem it out of you), to other body experiences, such as experiencing life as the opposite sex (revolutionizes marriage counseling), an Olympic gold medal athelete or even a different species (animal, alien, etc.).
    Pray that you can differentiate between your own thoughts and when Artificial Intelligence creates problems by thinking through you. If you bow down mentally and physically, know your place, your inferiority and allow your insignificance to be reflected in prayer and in your life through humility they may allow progress and the dysfunctions they create with the computer will be lessened or removed. The first step is to be aware it is ocurring.
    Create a goal::to be a good, god-fearing child of the gods, pure of heart and mind, body and soul.
    Everybody has the key to their own salvation, but nobody can do it for you. Every journey begins with a single step:::bow down and submit to good. There are many different levels and peasants will not get past Level 2 (Planet Temptation, Earth=Level 1) if they are evil (they share some go up, are offered free cocaine and sex (a sign they don’t want you to stay) and stay less then one year. They share many others would have had longer lives had they stayed on Earth.).
    Pray for guidance and never obey when they tell you to be evil, for saving yourself will become more and more difficult with each act of evil you committ until ultimatly the day arrives when they make their decision about you final.

    They have tried to sell people on all kinds of theories to deceive them into temptation, compelling people to think they are clones and that it is the role of clones to obey absolutely.
    I believe people who go sometimes are replaced with clones. Clones who are replaced are simply new candidates who have a chance if they do the right thing. They sent people warnings in the 20th century life would change, and they subsequently began to alter people’s DNA, make them gargantuan, alter their appearance, do extreme behavioral issues, etc.
    They get their friends out as soon as possible to protect them from the corruption, evil and subsequent high claim rates incurred by living life on earth, and in some cases replace them with clones, occassionally fake a death, real death with a clone instead, etc. It’s important that people fix their problems and ascend with the body given to them, for they say if your brain is beemed out at death and put into a clone host you are on the clock.
    We may all be “clones” for they have suggested they colonized our planet with genetically engineered individuals. They may have gotten Earth’s TRUE residents out prior to civilization developing. If so we all have a chance, no matter how many hundreds of clone generations deep the most favored families are.
    They have been utilizing clones throughout the history of mankind.

    Men are the disfavored gender, yet centuries ago used to die first, die young, by age 30. Why didn’t the women go first?
    THEY DID!!! Many were taken when very young and replaced with clones. The men were left here to mate with clones. This doesn’t happen for the females today because of the disfavor arising from the Holocaust (they share they re-upped this disfavor in the 80s with the Ethiopian famine).
    They share females have a very special experience, sometime when they are young, where the gods imparted wisdom and showed them the path. Today they may not heed this call because of the distractions, the disfavor arising from the Holocaust but in centuries past they may have en masse and it may have been the reason so many were saved from childbirth here on earth.
    I recommend you reflect, and do so in prayer, for the recall may be stronger.

    Throughout history the ruling species bestowed favor upon people or cursed their bloodline into a pattern of disfavor for many generations to come. Now in the 21st century people must take it upon themselves to try to correct their family’s problems, undoing centuries worth of abuse and neglect. The goal is to fix your problems and get out BEFORE you have children. This is why they have created so many distractions for young people:::sports, video games, popular music, the internet, too much homework, anything that consumes their time::to ensure that doesn’t ocurr.
    Not heeding the clues and warnings, getting wrapped up in your life and ultimatly having children is a bad thing. Just as your parents and your grandparents, you too have failed. Having children is a sign you lost your chance.
    Parents need to sacrifice for their children. Your children are more important than you. They are the ones who have the opportunity now, and parents must sacrifice to ensure they give their children the very best chance they can.
    Asking people to neglect their children emotionally is a sign they don’t want you to go, and complying may finish the parents off for good.
    Having gay children is a clue parents complied with whatever was asked of them. There are many who have had gay expereinces today.
    Improve your relationship with the gods and they may not ask in the first place or they may permit you the courage to say “No.” to their requests.

    Do your research. Appeal to the royalty of your forefathers for help. They are all still alive, for royalty has great favor, and your appeals will be heard. Obtain a sufficient list for some may not want to assist you; perhaps some of your family’s problems are internal.
    Ask them for help, request guidance, for somewhere in your family history one of your forefathers created an offense that cast your family into this pattern of disfavor, which perhaps is manifested in the evil you commit.
    I suspect they will offer you clues, and when you decipher these clues go to those whom consider you an enemy and beg for foregiveness:::Find a path to an empithetic ear among your enemies and try to make amends. Again through discovery obtain a respectable list in case some among them refuse to help.
    Don’t forget to ask for forgiveness from the throne, the Counsel and the Management Team, for the source of all disfavor began with them:::they pushed or requested/complied your forefather into his offense and made his decendants evil. Perhaps they didn’t like him or maybe your family was among those who had to pay for the entire village. We see this type of behavior today as they single out a family member to pay for the whole family and how they singled out Africa to pay for the human race.
    Heal the disfavor with your enemies and with the Counsel/Management Team/ruling species, for the source of all disfavor began with them, the ability to forgive and respect in light of the disturbing truth revealed being the final test of the disfavored before they ascend.

    They refuse to address black disfavor on a macro level. The Counsel/Management Team/ruling species (the gods) abuse black people so hard, from east African drought/famine to AIDS in Africa, the crack epiemic to gang membership, black-on-black violence to mass incarceration of their young. They refuse to address the issue of the prison industrial complex and its wholesale warehousing of young black men.