[ILUG] [OT] Electronic election count

[sean.odonnell at sentia.ie]

could'nt find a reference to that in there,

but the following was of interest

The Nedap-Powervote solution will provide a large screen voting machine,
which is successfully used in the Netherlands and in the German cities of
Cologne and Dusseldorf. Large screen machines are also used extensively in
the United States but they were not involved in the now infamous Florida
count. Election preparation will be run from an industry-standard PC system
and the completion of the count, using PR-STV, will also be carried out on a
standard PC and programming unit. The emphasis with the chosen system is on
security and simplicity. The system will be simple to use for voters and
returning officers and their staff. Vital functions will be available for
authorised staff only and a new version of the election management software
will be provided for every election. Electors will register in the normal
way at the polling station, record their preferences by pressing a
designated space beside the candidate's details on the ballot paper
displayed on the voting machine and vote by pressing the vote cast button.
There is a facility for an elector to correct or change a preference
recorded before the vote cast button is pressed. Votes cast are always
securely stored in case of a machine or power failure.


and 


I assure the House that the system will be tested exhaustively by Department
officials, returning officers and the Local Government Computer Services
Board. It is also proposed to subject the system to independent testing by
two international test institutes and by a company here in Ireland. Only
when the Government is fully assured that the system operates satisfactorily
will a pilot project in a constituency be undertaken.

-----Original Message-----
From: bscanlan at irish-times.com [mailto:bscanlan at irish-times.com]
Sent: 31 May 2002 06:46
To: ilug at linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] [OT] Electronic election count


On Fri, May 31, 2002 at 02:32:34PM +0100, sean.odonnell at sentia.ie wrote:
> much easier to get away with than setting a fire, 

Disrupting the vote itself is relatively easy. "Wiping" the votes
wouldn't actually change a result. Appropiate action would presumably be
taken against such an attack on democracy. If a real threat existed
along those lines, I'm sure measures would be put in place to prevent
the magnet from doing damage. It'd probably want to be a pretty big
magnet in any case, no?

Incidentally, this link makes it sound as if the source code and specs
were to be placed in the Dail Library:

http://www.irlgov.ie/debates-01/22june/sect1.htm

Brian.
-- 
Brian Scanlan, Systems Administrator.
Irish Times New Media - http://www.ireland.com

-- 
Irish Linux Users' Group: ilug at linux.ie
http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug for (un)subscription information.
List maintainer: listmaster at linux.ie