Friday, December 14, 2007

Breaking the secrecy of the voting booth

Thanks to Glyn via the ORG list for the pointer to this YouTube video by Ron Gongrijp and co.:



After nearly 20 years of using computing machines, a TV programme just before the elections last year finally brought home the problems with evoting to the masses. The Dutch have now abandoned computer based voting, at least for the time being.

"On September 27, 2007 the Election Process Advisory Commission issued its 'Voting with confidence' report. The State Secretary for the Interior immediately announced that the 'Regulation for approval of voting machines 1997' will be withdrawn. On October 1, 2007 the District Court of Amsterdam decertified all Nedap voting computers currently in use in The Netherlands. The court order is a result of an administrative law procedure started by 'We do not trust voting computers' in March 2007. On October 21, 2007 the 'Regulation for approval of voting machines 1997' was finally withdrawn.

Elections in the Netherlands will be held using paper ballots and red pencil for a while. After that, we will likely be using 'vote printers' and separate counting machines."

Pity Bertie Ahern won't take the hint.

No comments: