Govt. is keen to deploy e-voting despite evidence of ballot rigging (UK!)

[Liberty Belle]

Political machinations

The government is keen to deploy e-voting despite evidence of ballot rigging

Michael Meacher
Wednesday February 2, 2005
The Guardian

For the first time, vote-rigging may become a serious issue at a general election - perhaps in just three months' time. With several cases of alleged vote-rigging and fraud already under investigation - in Reading, Birmingham, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire - the Electoral Commission is pressing guidelines on detecting voting fraud on senior police and election officers.
Meanwhile, the government remains keen on electronic voting and is aiming at "an e-enabled election some time after 2006". Will this raise turnout or simply increase the risk of fraud? Several pilots have been held. In 2003, six local authorities electronically counted ballot papers where votes had also been cast electronically. Surprisingly, there has been no manual checking of the e-counting results.

However, a full-blown test run of e-voting has been carried out elsewhere, with very instructive results. It shows that e-voting is neither secure nor tamper-proof, and allegations are surfacing that it may have affected the result. This dry run was the recent US presidential election. . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/comment/story/0,12449,1403545,00.html

[paineinthearse]

1. "This dry run was the recent US presidential election. . ."

...appropriately "won" by a dry drunk.

[Guns Aximbo]

2. Why do you think the crooks are keen on it?

They see an opportunity to rig elections.

They see an opportunity to win.

If you left it up to chance they may not win their elections, therefore they are pro e-voting. They can finally control their destinies.

It's the same here in the U.S.A. Politicians (scum of the earth) rarely get voted out of office once they're in. Now with E-voting that trend is more secure.

Fuck 'em all

[AP]

3. Let's not forget that Venezuela used e-voting to reduce the chance of...

...fraud.

Venezuela had paper trail e-voting. You made your selection, the ballot printed up, the voter looks at it, and if it's OK the machine drops it into a ballot box.

At the end of the day, the machine has an instant count, which, to Venezuela, was the key part of the operation.

Aparently, a lot of fraud occurs when, in the process of counting, it turns out that one side is doing well and then ballots start getting mutilated and whole ballot boxes disappear.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Ah, but that's not what the UK is talking about

'e-voting' in the UK means not having to turn up at the polling station at all. It gets done over those oh-so-secure things like the Internet or mobile phones. No verifiable paper trail there.

Electronic Voting

Seventeen of the pilot schemes offered electors the chance to cast their vote electronically through a wide variety of channels: on the internet, by telephone, via text messaging and, for the first time, through interactive digital television. The Commission recognises the value of electronic means in making voting easier and more accessible and the piloted methods worked well and were appreciated by those voters who used them. At the same time, May's trials demonstrate that e-voting should not be seen as a means of securing short-term increases in turnout.
...
The Commission believes that further piloting is necessary for electronic voting, with the focus on internet and telephone channels to test scalability. This year's experience suggests that text message and digital TV channels add limited value, and that the use of e-voting kiosks should be more targeted to remote locations instead of simply replacing paper ballots in polling stations.

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/newsreleasereviews.cfm/news/214

[Liberty Belle]

5. Ah. New ways for neocons to cheat.