Ireland rejects BBV--after spending 52 million Euros for it!

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E-voting plan abandoned over flaws in €52m system

Saturday May 1st 2004
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GOVERNMENT plans to switch to complete electronic voting have been dashed for at least five years following a damning indictment of the state of the system.

The Fianna Fail-PD coalition was reeling last night from sustained criticism after it spent €52m on computer hardware and software that is now being abandoned with no clear sign of when the 6,200 machines might be used again.

Environment Minister Martin Cullen, who championed the introduction of electronic voting, resisted Opposition calls for his resignation from Cabinet.

A government-appointed commission left Mr Cullen, who had passionately defended the reliability and security of the system, politically exposed by the stark terms of its report on electronic voting.

Voters will not be able to use the system in June after the commission raised serious questions about its security and integrity.

Although commission tests found the system could count votes accurately, it was not convinced that it was totally foolproof, especially for multi-polls as intended in June.

One of the most damning findings was that experts retained by the commission found it "very easy" to bypass electronic security measures.

They found it was possible to overwrite the software "and thereby in theory to gain complete control over the count in a given constituency."

The Commission pointed out:

* It did not get access to the full source code for the system;

* It was unsatisfactory that new versions of the software would continue to be issued in the run-up to the June elections;

* There had been no independent "end-to-end" testing of the system;

* There was an error in the count software;

* There was a possibility of interference with the voting machine, the ballot module and the hardened PC;

* Total voter secrecy was not assured.

Because the software for the June elections is not yet finalised the commission said it was not possible for anyone to certify its accuracy.

The commission concluded: "Having regard to the issues of secrecy, accuracy and testing, it is unable to recommend the use of the proposed system on June 11."

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http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1173998

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since they use the same machines: Powervote by Nedap (using MS Access).

evoting.cs.may.ie
redbrick.dcu.ie

www.nedap.nl
www.nedapspecials.nl
election.nl

a few German cities near the Dutch border bought voting machines, but not all states allow them. The vast majority of ballots is still hand-counted. (yes, buying those machines is a city affair; not State, not Federal)
And the federal laws are pretty strict on receipts - a manual recount has to be possible.

On a side note: some German states have a very difficult local voting system, in which each voter can have up to several hundred votes.
That system is used as the main reason for voting machines, as a single cross too many on the ballot invalidates it - many voters were unable to make the right number of crosses.
Yet this system hinders voting machines: so far no machine is able to implement that voting system.


Edit: and most German machines are not NEDAP, but Müller & Lorenz made.

things might suddenly start working against them.

Hope the people win on this issue EVERYWHERE. If conservatives don't cheat, they have a hard time winning.

Their common sense is so widespread in matters like this. Meanwhile back in the states, all we can do is gawk at Michael Jackson on our thoughtscreens and gabble away on our cell phones in traffic.

:freak:
dbt

I guess since they are richer they don't really care? :shrug: If they are anything like Diebold, they will just put a fix in and call it good and do another sales con job.

I wish they would sue these people or something. It is sad that they get to keep the money for something that isn't worth jack.

duplicate, copyright rules

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=520947