[LINK] [UK] Call for e-voting to be scrapped amid security fears

[Richard Chirgwin]

Lea de Groot wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:56:14 +1000, Rick Welykochy wrote:
>   
>> I wonder what problem e-voting systems are attempting to solve?
>>     
>
> I'm going to be totally non-cynical and say that we have trained our 
> pollies too well that computerising a system = a good thing.
> We've taught them that a well implemented system saves lots of dollars, 
> that the punters like the result and that they Look Good! (Completely 
> different to a rollout fiasco, of course)
>
> Now we have to teach them that the voting system isn't broken, please 
> don't try to fix it...
>   
I entirely agree! As I have remarked before on this list, we seem to 
have a very low-cost voting system that delivers results (usually) 
within a couple of hours of the close of polls.

Absolutely the only argument I have ever heard in favour of any kind of 
machine-based voting is support for the blind and otherwise disabled. 
That is *not* a good reason to ditch democracy for the rest of the 
country, so I respectfully suggest that we need to find a way to satisfy 
their requirements while protecting the integrity of the electoral system.

E-Voting is a *toy*. You lose at most a few hours a year to attend a 
polling place; convenience is both spurious and utterly childish ("waaa! 
I don't wanna go to the polls I wanna go shopping!") - except for remote 
communities which (a) don't have a decent broadband infratructure to 
support the system and (b) the electoral commission takes the vote to 
them, not the other way around - and I find it beyond belief that any 
thinking human gives a single column inch to the idea without asking 
"what does it fix?"

And yes, Lea, I also believe that the cynical drabs in various 
parliaments have in mind "by spending money on e-voting we appear Look 
Good".

RC
> Lea
>