[LINK] E-voting fears run high as election day looms

[Antony Barry]

On 29/10/2008, at 5:50 PM, Stilgherrian wrote:

> Apart from the cargo-cult "it's on a computer so it must be better"
> lameness, what advantage is there AT ALL to electronic voting?


The advantage is in the counting for systems more complex than first- 
past-the-post BUT you don't need electronic voting to do it you just  
need to capture the vote at some stage, either by keying from the  
paper ballot or using OCR of some kind with visual human verification  
of accuracy.

But then I live in the ACT where we have multiple member electorates  
with optional preferential voting above and below the line using the  
Hare-Clark system with Robson rotation of candidates names to  
eliminate the donkey vote (ballot papers are not identical). I'm  
pretty sure that if you are not following a party line using paper  
would be a faster way to vote.

Tony

Antony Barry
antonybbarry at gmail.com