[LINK] Fwd: vip-l: The Age - article: 'Victoria puts blind faith in electronic voting'

Jan Whitaker jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Tue Nov 14 13:59:10 AEDT 2006


[no link provided, sorry] Note comment that expanding to the general 
public is "not government policy". Anyone want to bet on when it will be?

>
>THE AGE
>
>Victoria puts blind faith in electronic voting
>By LIA TIMSON
>
>November 14, 2006
>
>Victoria is about to enter the age of electronic voting at a time 
>when controversy rages in the United States over whether such 
>machines make democracy itself "hackable".
>
>Vision-impaired Victorians begin voting this week on new e-voting 
>terminals designed for privacy and security, ahead of the state 
>election on November 25.
>
>The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) claims its machines cannot be hacked.
>
>But there were widespread reports of e-voting irregularities in the 
>US after last week's mid-term elections. Voters across the nation 
>described a phenomenon called "vote flipping", in which votes 
>intended for one candidate were recorded for another.
>
>E-voting advocates blamed user error but others suggested touch 
>screens used for e-voting may have been badly calibrated.
>
>The recent HBO documentary Hacking Democracy raised fears of 
>undetectable e-voting fraud, but most reports from last week were of 
>faulty machines.
>
>In Salt Lake City, Utah, and Indianapolis, Indiana, some machines 
>did not boot up. In Florida some machines shut down. In New Jersey 
>some voters claimed the machines highlighted a Democrat candidate by 
>default. Denver and Pennsylvania also reported problems with their 
>machines, resulting in long delays and voter queues.
>
>Tekla Perry, editor of IEEE Spectrum magazine, saw problems with 
>e-voting even in the heart of Silicon Valley in California, where 
>five out of the seven machines at her polling place failed to work.
>
>But the VEC says its e-voting trial, the forerunner to a bigger 
>trial at the next federal election, has undergone exhaustive testing 
>before the event.
>
>"The system is standalone, it's not like in the US where it is 
>networked, so it can't be hacked," says Sue Lang, VEC communications 
>manager. "The worst thing that can happen is that you'll have a loss 
>of confidence in the election. That's (our) main concern."
>
>Privacy and security concerns were raised by political parties and 
>election officials when the legislation allowing the e-voting trial 
>was passed. But all these concerns have been addressed, Ms Lang 
>says. "(We) have had an independent software auditor confirm it does 
>what it's meant to do," she says. "If this works successfully the 
>obvious question will be if it's applicable for wider application."
>
>Special Minister of State Gary Nairn announced in August a federal 
>trial of e-voting for the vision-impaired at the next federal 
>election. There will also be an online ballot for Australian Defence 
>Force personnel stationed overseas using the ADF's intranet.
>
>If successful, these trials will be extended in 2010, possibly to 
>include Australians living in Antarctica. But a spokeswoman for Mr 
>Nairn says the federal trials are not a precursor to general 
>nationwide e-voting, because "it is not government policy".
>
>Since 2001, able and disabled voters have had their votes tabulated 
>electronically in the ACT. In 2004, 28,169 electronic votes were 
>recorded at 12 pre-poll and polling day centres, representing 13.4 
>per cent of the ballot. The system used barcodes, and terminals were 
>networked using eVACS software, a secure LAN and remote servers.
>
>A review of those elections by the ACT Electoral Commission gave the 
>system the thumbs up. "While there were some concerns publicly 
>raised about the need for a paper audit trail of electronic votes, 
>the Commission is satisfied that the use of open source software, 
>the independent audit of the software code, and the security built 
>into the system, including its physical security, ensured that the 
>system was transparent and reliable," the report said.
>
>The VEC's e-voting system was set up in response to submissions for 
>electoral reform by Vision Australia and Blind Citizens Australia. 
>Private electronic terminals allow voters to cast their preferences 
>unassisted using read-aloud software, headphones and a modified 
>numerical keypad. A large print touch screen for people with partial 
>vision, and human help, are also at hand.
>
>The Victorian system, designed by Hewlett-Packard and Spain's Scytl 
>Secure Electronic Voting, is different to the US machines as it does 
>not tabulate voting preferences electronically. It records votes and 
>later prints out the corresponding ballot papers, leaving an 
>auditable paper trail.
>
>Voters have their names marked off the roll in the traditional way 
>and receive a smart-card containing their electorate details. They 
>insert the card into a card-reader attached to the voting terminal 
>that sits behind a number-sealed plastic box and follow the 
>instructions. Once a vote is cast, the card is locked and cannot be used again.
>
>Disability groups convinced the Victorian Government of the need for 
>the e-vote, arguing it provides the ballot secrecy afforded to able voters.
>
>Historically, blind and sight-impaired voters have needed a helper 
>to record their preferences.
>
>Chris Gribbin, e-voting project manager at the VEC, says voting 
>preferences will be recorded on a hard disk and a removable back-up 
>USB key inside each terminal. When polling closes, the encrypted 
>data will be burnt on to CD and transported to the central VEC 
>office for printing. Regional centres will transmit the data via private ADSL.
>
>At the VEC the data will be decrypted by two officials using 
>individual key cards and passwords. Votes will then be printed on to 
>paper ballots and returned to their electorate centres to be counted by hand.
>
>Australia has lagged behind the rest of the world in adopting 
>electronic ballots. A report produced by the Victorian and 
>Australian Electoral Commissions in 2001 said the Australian 
>preferential voting system does not readily lend itself to the use 
>of the technology deployed in the US.
>
>It argued that proportional representation would complicate 
>electronic elections requiring voters to rank all candidates 
>according to preference.
>
>It also argued "there is no evidence to suggest that there is any 
>political or community support for change".
>
>But Tony Clark, manager of strategic projects at Vision Australia, 
>says vision-impaired voters have reported feeling empowered for the 
>first time. If e-voting is good for vision-impaired people, he says, 
>it's good for everybody.
>
>"It's got great potential," Mr Clark says. "We just need the 
>political will. Political parties are used to counting pieces of 
>paper. (They leave) a real trail that people can follow. They are 
>also used to capturing people by giving them how-to-vote cards.
>
>"They can still do that (with electronic voting kiosks) but they 
>haven't got their head around it yet," he says.
>
>The VEC's Mr Gribbin says different jurisdictions have had different 
>motivations for introducing electronic elections.
>
>"For us is was the vision-impaired. In Brazil it was for the 
>illiterate population, in other countries such as India it was (to 
>eliminate) fraud, in the ACT it was to count (votes) faster," Mr Gribbin says.
>
>The 2002 Australian Electoral Commission report says: "Australia has 
>always been a leader in electoral democracy. Australians need to be 
>aware that other jurisdictions are now taking the lead on the e-voting issue."
>
>
>Link: 
><http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/victoria-puts-blind-faith-in-electronic-voting/2006/11/13/1163266481851.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1>http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/victoria-puts-blind-faith-in-electronic-voting/2006/11/13/1163266481851.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 
>
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Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
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'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
there is no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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