e-Voting machines

BoB_BoT · 06-10-2010 4:34pm #1

Just listening to the Last Word and they're on about the e-voting machines. Instead of scrapping them, would it be possible to convert them into something useful?

Anyone have specifications on the hardware or images of the machines themselves? Are they touch screen, or are they button operated? Just can't seem to find too much info on the actual specifications of them.

Would be interested in finding another use for them rather than in the bin.

Biggins · 06-10-2010 4:37pm

In before Biggins....

...O' crap!

Sykk · 06-10-2010 4:37pm

In before bi..

Damnit!

Fionn MacCool · 06-10-2010 4:41pm

Why are they scrapping them? Surely they do the job pretty well. I mean if they used them for the Lisbon Treaty it would have all been settled far sooner. Anyone pressing 'No' would have got an error box saying 'You have made an invalid selection, please retry'.

SugarHigh · 06-10-2010 4:43pm

Trying to make up a use for them will just give them another chance to cost more money than they already have. The storage costs alone are in the hundreds of thousands.

BoB_BoT · 06-10-2010 4:47pm

yes, but if a private enterprise was to buy them off the state if they had another use for them.

Morlar · 06-10-2010 5:06pm

But of course no public servant or politician in Ireland could ever burn through that much of our money and not be held accountable. That's just crazy talk.

Biggins · 06-10-2010 5:30pm

I suppose Burma or Zimbabwe might buy them for their next elections? Then there is also Iran too?

dvpower · 06-10-2010 5:35pm

BoB_BoT wrote: »

yes, but if a private enterprise was to buy them off the state if they had another use for them.

Put them up on EBay

BattlingCheese · 06-10-2010 5:38pm

Biggins wrote: »

I suppose Burma or Zimbabwe might buy them for their next elections? Then there is also Iran too?

Yes a great idea. Sell them to some dodgy South American or African regime where there would be no worries in using them.
Could be a whole new export business in the making.

Biggins · 06-10-2010 5:42pm

BattlingCheese wrote: »

Yes a great idea. Sell them to some dodgy South American or African regime where there would be no worries in using them.
Could be a whole new export business in the making.

...And they would come from a seen dodgy government!
So the buyers would know the machines come from masters of getting what they want and who screw the people!

What a sales pitch!

Poor Uncle Tom · 06-10-2010 5:52pm

Wrap one around each politicians neck before dropping them mid-atlantic. Two problems solved in one go.

AckwelFoley · 06-10-2010 5:57pm

Sell them to another country that will use them

punchdrunk · 06-10-2010 6:03pm

I think a far better idea would be to have to recycle them,and giving that contract to a company directed by a relation of one of our ministers...

Pookah · 06-10-2010 6:04pm

BattlingCheese wrote: »

Yes a great idea. Sell them to some dodgy South American or African regime where there would be no worries in using them.

Sell 'em to the States.

Electoral fraud is de rigueur over there these days.

galwayrush · 06-10-2010 6:20pm

If they scrapped them, wat would the poor FF cronies who are getting paid to store them do for cash?:eek:

deandean · 06-10-2010 6:33pm

Shred'em quick!

I'd be worring about FF'ers reprogramming them before next election....

(The old ones are the best...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PLTZxLNTUk&feature=PlayList&p=094BE67D26045808&index=0&playnext=1

BoB_BoT · 06-10-2010 6:43pm

Pookah wrote: »

Sell 'em to the States.

Electoral fraud is de rigueur over there these days.

Would they work in Florida's climate? :P

galwayrush · 06-10-2010 6:59pm

BoB_BoT wrote: »

Would they work in Florida's climate? :P

Extremely well....:pac::pac::pac:

Reloc8 · 06-10-2010 7:04pm

Could they be converted to ATM's ? Like real ones, as opposed to metaphorical ones for whoever got the contract to store them ?

No, wait...pointless.

CCCP · 06-10-2010 7:19pm

Convert them into Poker Arcade machines, that would recoup the bill in no time:P

StupidLikeAFox · 06-10-2010 7:56pm

What exactly is the problem with them that they cant be used exactly? I know people said it was security but shirley the software required isn't overly complicated? ATMs have been around for years and they're secure so why not these machines?

sunnyside · 06-10-2010 8:03pm

Didn't Biffo or someone buy us lots of snow-ploughs recently. I think they need to get rid of the e-voting machines because they need the storage space for the new snow-ploughs.

Atlantic Dawn · 06-10-2010 8:17pm

Sell them for €500 a piece to Irish bars around the world and let each of them vote for our next government as we clearly don't know how to vote here

hmmm · 06-10-2010 8:20pm

ColHol wrote: »

ATMs have been around for years and they're secure so why not these machines?

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090325/120736175.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/u2sockmonkey/1355889565/
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9657
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-6135905-7.html

BoB_BoT · 06-10-2010 8:22pm

ColHol wrote: »

What exactly is the problem with them that they cant be used exactly? I know people said it was security but shirley the software required isn't overly complicated? ATMs have been around for years and they're secure so why not these machines?

Apparently it was the software, the machines could be tampered with to submit a false selection. A Dutch group "We don't trust voting computers" apparently did it on the more or less the same machines Ireland had. I'm not sure why they couldn't be fixed or secured, but apparently this was just cause enough to scrap 'em.

OPENROAD · 06-10-2010 8:22pm

snyper wrote: »

Sell them to another country that will use them

That would be a bit like a mobile phone company trying to sell 1st generartion mobile phones alongside an I Phone

fergalr · 06-10-2010 10:12pm

I'm very angry about this.
But unlike you guys, sitting here moaning, I'm going to offer a constructive solution.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1006/breaking26.html

From the article: "Although they are valued at about €30 million"

We can divide the total 'value' they put on the machines (30,000,000) by the number of machin...es (7,000) to get the 'value' per machine.
Which is about four thousand euro per machine.

Thats the value.

I mean, its not like I buy and sell old computers on adverts.ie or anything, but half a million quid for an 8 year old PC in a cabinet, that doesn't work, is more than one would sell for there.

Now, I said I wasn't going to just moan.

I've had an idea.

Check this out:
http://boingboing.net/2010/08/23/voting-machine-hacke.html
Thats a voting machine that has been hacked to play Pacman.

Seriously people, I'm not kidding.

Lets turn them into PacMan cabinets, and put one in each town.

Put em out where people can see them.
As monuments to the folly of Celtic Tiger Ireland, they could be hugely educational.

We won't have voting machines, but at least we'd have fúcking expensive Pacman cabinets.

chicksticks · 06-10-2010 10:17pm

BoB_BoT wrote: »

Just listening to the Last Word and they're on about the e-voting machines. Instead of scrapping them, would it be possible to convert them into something useful?

Anyone have specifications on the hardware or images of the machines themselves? Are they touch screen, or are they button operated? Just can't seem to find too much info on the actual specifications of them.

Would be interested in finding another use for them rather than in the bin.

yes bean tins as no one else would want them

Solair · 06-10-2010 10:18pm

They're actually pretty useless as they're very primitive and seem to be hard-coded for the PR-STV electoral system which isn't all that widely used:

Potential markets :
Malta
Parliamentary elections
European elections
Local government elections

Northern Ireland
Regional assembly elections
European elections
Local government elections

Scotland
Local government elections (since May 2007)

India
Upper house of the Parliament Proportional representation by single transferable vote by state legislatures

Australia
Country-wide
Senate elections (in the form of a group voting ticket)
Australian Capital Territory
Legislative Assembly elections
New South Wales
Legislative Council elections
Local government elections
Tasmania
House of Assembly elections
Local government elections
Victoria
Legislative Council elections
Local government elections
Western Australia
Legislative Council elections

New Zealand
Some local government elections such as Dunedin and the capital city of Wellington
Local health board elections

United States
City elections in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Certain city elections in Minneapolis, Minnesota (starting in 2009)

fergalr · 06-10-2010 10:25pm

chicksticks wrote: »

yes bean tins as no one else would want them

Thats not true.

:pac:.......................

.

hmmm · 06-10-2010 10:26pm

BoB_BoT wrote: »

Apparently it was the software, the machines could be tampered with to submit a false selection. A Dutch group "We don't trust voting computers" apparently did it on the more or less the same machines Ireland had. I'm not sure why they couldn't be fixed or secured, but apparently this was just cause enough to scrap 'em.

Fundamentally they were the wrong solution. When you hit the button on the machine, you had to trust that the software would record your vote correctly. If it didn't, how would you know? If someone had hacked the machines, how would you know?

There are solutions that fix these problems, but it would cost too much to retrofit the machines we bought. The government went out and bought these machines without taking proper security advice and they were found out. Doing this for something as important as our voting system was crazy - it was just as well we discovered the problem early, before "Joe Hacker" received 162% of the vote in a Presidential election.

Run_to_da_hills · 06-10-2010 10:34pm

Flog them on to Ennis Town Council as "Information Age Mark 2" computers.

Grimreaper666 · 06-10-2010 10:35pm

It reminds me of the story of NASA spending millions developing a pen that they could use in space, the Russians just used a pencil............... the amount of money being squandered in this country is staggering, you just couldn't make the stuff up and you can be sure if it was traced back the e-voting machines were probably developed by some FFers son or cronie.

CrazyRabbit · 06-10-2010 10:48pm

Make boards.ie a physical place.

Then install the eVoting machines and modify them to take the place if the Thanks button. You can then login, and choose which person you want to give your 'Thanks' to.

e-Voting machines

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