Critics of the Diebold touch-screen voting machines turned their attention Wednesday from the machines themselves to the computers that will tally the final vote, saying the outcome is so easy to manipulate that even a monkey could do it.And they showed video of a monkey hacking the system to prove it.
Over the weekend the democratic party in Michigan used an eVoting system for its primary. According to their reports, things went off without a hitch. In response to reports (reported here below), about the Pentagon scrapping their eVoting initiative, a DNC spokseman said "I don't know the specifics of their system, but our system was secure." Right.
One third of all votes cast in the primary were collected electronically. Kerry won overall, but later this week they'll be releasing a report breaking down votes by method and candidate. I'll keep you posted.
An eVoting pilot that would allow miltary staff stationed overseas to cast their ballots electronically has been postoned. The pilot program was scraped due to security concerns - concerns not just about the pilot, but the security of the Internet in general. The pilot, which was to be tested this week, was testing a system that was planning to be enacted in time for the 2004 Presidential elections. The initiative has seemingly been suspended indefinitely.
California, probably the most forward thinking state in terms of eVoting initiatives, are working out the kinks of their current system. The Seretary of State's office has recently released an Report from their Ad Hoc Touch Screen Task Force.
Nothing especially earth shattering in the report, though the directive that all touch screen voting systems must include an accessible voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) is a step in the right direction, and should qualm many fears about the possibility for funny business with eVoting.
The Electoral Reform Society, an independent organization concerned with, well, electoral reform, published their report of the UK's recent voting trials and the news is not so good. Their report on the various alternative voting pilots found that none significantly increased voter turnout. The pilots tested in the recent elections included postal, SMS, internet, and digital TV.
All in all, there were 56 pilots tested on 6.5 potential voters. The report found that, on average, turnouts increased about 15%, but total turnout in districts running the pilots still didn't reach desirable levels. Most of the increase came through the postal pilots, and the numbers are much worse for the technology pilots. Only 3 of 10 districts running tech pilots saw increases, and the those distrcits only saw single digit increases. On average, in those districts with eVoting pilots, less than 10% of those voting choose to use the technology option.
I'll wait to see some kind of official report from the Office of the e-Envoy, but I must say this doesn't bode well for the UK's ambitious eVoting goals.
In the 2004 elections, the US federal government will be testing its Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE).
I've got some initial problems with SERVE, 1) it is only available on computers running on the Windows operating system, 2) the testing will be very limited to about 6 million potential voters (only citizens living abroad and members of the armed services), and 3) it requires a third step in the voting provess by requiring participants to register with SERVE to get a digital signature (the other two being registering to vote and actually voting).
Still, it will be the first use of the Internet for binding results in a US national election and should be a good test of the system.
ABC News is collecting daily "notes" from the presidential candidates and collecting them on one website. The notes can be on any topic, but must be 200 words or less. Most of the notes have been written (or at least attributed) to the candidates themselves.
The Washington Post is calling it a weblog, but I don't see it. I'm not sure what could more can be communicated by the candidates in 200 of their own words that isn't included in the reams of ink already dedicated to the campaign everyday by paid reporters and bloggers. Vermont Governor Howard Dean has an official weblog for his campaign. It is updated severeal times a day, with links to press, updates on movement along the campaign trail, and general commentary, but isn't updated by Dean himself, rather a collection of PR flacks (I'm guessing). Still, it is a good to see candidates embracing technology, and this should be an increasingly interesting read as the campaign continues, especially in light of the verbal volleys already taking place between Dean and Kerry.
Interesting article about England's eVoting pilots, and the hope for increased voter turnout. The last local elections in the UK attracted only 1/3 of registered voters. And while the various (smaller scale) pilots that ran last year all saw increased turnout, most people are unconvinced that these new iniatitives will make much of a difference. "Some people would say that these new measures will increase turnout fairly substantially the first time round," sayd Dennis Reed, director of thinktank Local Government Information Unit thinktank, "then people will get just as used to it as the ordinary type of voting and get concerned about whether their vote really matters."
I'm not going to get into a whole debate about apathy and democracy, but the actual technology and execution seems very well thought out. Registered voters were sent two smart cards in the mail, one with an identification number and the other with a passcode. Both must be used, and each were mailed seperately, which is a simple, but relatively effective security measure. The cards can be inserted into kiosks, or the numbers on each card entered online, or via wireless text messaging. The voting begins officially tomorrow, and will continue for several days.
The UK is preparing to enact nation-wide eVoting by 2006. Toward that goal, they'll be offering 17 pilot eVoting schemes include Digital TV, wireless text messaging, touch-tome telephone, internet, and kiosks. All in all, the government will be testing more than 40 different voting methods, with the opportunity for 1.4 people to participate in the pilot programs for the upcomming May elections.