Electronic Voting?

Hitchens

Bring it in ffs.

In 2014 it's time get with current technology.

We would have it already only for Nora Owen turning on the waterworks awhile back when she lost in an election.

Another recount in Castlebar or someplace 5 days after the election.

And how many working days are being lost having all those counting staff involved, and various hangers on as well?

galwayredgirl

Hitchens wrote: »

Bring it in ffs.

In 2014 it's time get with current technology.

We would have it already only for Nora Owen turning on the waterworks awhile back when she lost in an election.

Another recount in Castlebar or someplace 5 days after the election.

And how many working days are being lost having all those counting staff involved, and various hangers on as well?

It's absolutely daft!

force eleven

Stop moaning. Its democracy. And transparent.

Gbear

It's a great idea but as long as we have a bunch of technologically illiterate fools in government there's no way they're going to implement it properly.

kneemos

Takes all the fun out of it.No more tallies or worried politicians?
The humble pencil turns the whole thing into s blood sport.

Ruu

Hmm yes, we could call it e-voting. Sure couldnt cost any more than a few million eurons, money well spent!

padd b1975

Hitchens wrote: »

We would have it already only for Nora Owen turning on the waterworks awhile back when she lost in an election.

Not even remotely true.

The technology chosen was found to be unreliable.

Barely There

If only we had some spare electronic voting machines knocking around.

Dan_Solo

But what about all the extended families of City/County Council workers who get a nice bonus every two years doing the count?
What I'd like to see is voting machines that cover every bill put before the Dail and turf the lot of them out. Maybe that's why they're so desperate to ensure the whole system is a disaster?

seamus

With our current system of an anonymous ballot, evoting is many times less secure than a pen and paper and much easier to use to rig an election.

There are plenty of scenarios in which evoting should be used. Our current electoral scenario is not one of them.

Barely There

padd b1975 wrote: »

Not even remotely true.

The technology chosen was found to be unreliable.

That's not true either.

The technology chosen was found to be unable to produce a verifiable hard copy record.

Davarus Walrus

Gbear wrote: »

It's a great idea but as long as we have a bunch of technologically illiterate fools in government there's no way they're going to implement it properly.

What level of technological competence do you think should be a prerequisite for becoming a member of government? Being able to compile the linux kernel or achieving a level 200 in world of warcraft?

And for the civil servants? Perhaps a neckbeard and a wallet chain should be mandatory for entry.

seamus

Barely There wrote: »

That's not true either.

The technology chosen was found to be unable to produce a verifiable hard copy record.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/item/6793-e-voting-machines-successfu

With an anonymous ballot it is functionally impossible to create a guaranteed verifiable voter record. If you cannot link a voter to their vote, you cannot guarantee the security of the e-ballot.

How do you ensure the security of the ballot? Have the paper printouts counted? That would require places to count them, we could call them "count centres" and people to count them, and probably a supervisor, we could call them a "returning officer" or something like that. Yeah, that's much more cost-effective than a pencil and paper ballot.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

The current voting system isn't broken, no need to over engineer a solution.

kneemos

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

The current voting system isn't broken, no need to over engineer a solution.

My polling booth was out of order.

Hitchens

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

The current voting system isn't broken, no need to over engineer a solution.

Ha, ha, they're checking now if the number 1 votes were marked properly..........could take days, and even then there could be a full recount

Dempsey

Hitchens wrote: »

Ha, ha, they're checking now if the number 1 votes were marked properly..........could take days, and even then there could be a full recount

So? Doesn't mean the system is broken

E-voting will never be better than the current method

Mr_Red

Good Idea OP but eh...............2012

THE Government has sold the infamous €54m e-voting machines for scrap -- for €9.30 each.

A huge fleet of trucks will begin removing the 7,500 machines from 14 locations on Monday.

They will be taken to a Co Offaly recycling company, KMK Metals Recycling Ltd in Tullamore, where they will be stripped down and shredded.

Ironically, the owner of the firm, Kurt Kyck, cast his vote on one of the machines in the 2002 elections. He has now paid €70,000 for the lot.

Scrapping the machines brings to an end the embarrassing e-voting debacle which has cost the taxpayer more than €54m since it emerged the expensive equipment was faulty.

They could not be guaranteed to be safe from tampering. And they could not produce a printout so that votes/results could be double-checked.

But last night the man who first proposed using them washed his hands of the affair.

Former Fianna Fail minister Noel Dempsey suggested e-voting in 1999 but the machines were purchased by Martin Cullen three years later.

Mr Dempsey refused to comment, directing questions to his successor in the Department of the Environment.

"I'm a private citizen," he told the Irish Independent at his home in Trim, Co Meath.

"Ask Martin Cullen, he bought them," he added. And then he walked into his house.

Mr Cullen could not be reached for comment.

The machines had also been strongly supported by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who said Ireland would become a "laughing stock" unless we stopped using pencil and paper to record our votes. Mr Ahern also refused to comment when contacted by this newspaper.

Bought in 2002, the machines were supposed to be used in local, general and European elections, and in referendums. But an independent commission found two years later that the lack of a paper trail and security issues meant they could not be used. They have languished in storage ever since, costing up to €700,000 a year, before a decision was taken in 2007 to move 60pc to a secure storage site at Gormanston in Co Meath to save money. Annual storage costs have run to €140,000 a year since, but all payments will cease at the end of this year.

Hitchens

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/childrens-minster-charlie-flanagan-calls-for-return-of-evoting-30311538.html

:eek: