[LINK] Victoria the first to cast e-vote in a state election

[Craig Sanders]

On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 11:01:10AM +0800, brd at iimetro.com.au wrote:
> Quoting Brendan Scott <brendansweb at optusnet.com.au>:
> 
> >Is there some reason why can't they get a braille printer and print 
> >out a completed ballot (for the voter to confirm before submitting 
> >it)?  Or have a certain number of braille ballots available to be 
> >filled in at the booth?
> 
> The issue was not so much voting, but voting in secret. Having to tell
> a sighted person how they wanted to vote (as well as potentially being
> overheard but even more people) was seen (ha!) as embarrassing.

IMO, a little embarrassment is trivial compared to the risks of
e-voting.

but this is the way that the e-voting companies will get their way, by
making it a PC disability issue. the emotive argument will override
the rational security argument (as emotive arguments always do). and
then they'll push for it being the standard voting method so that all
citizens can have the "convenience" of electronic voting, not just the
blind.

and by the time we've replaced a perfectly good, manual counting system
(that has enough participation by volunteer scrutineers from all walks
of life so that it is remarkably secure and reliable) with an easily
corrupted electronic system, it will be too late. after all, the
winner of any corrupt election process is hardly likely to allow an
investigation into allegations of vote-machine rigging.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)