ELECTRONIC VOTING IN IRELAND
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The Irish government had made plans to introduce nationwide electronic voting for the local and European Parliament elections in 2004. The proposed change was under the supervision of the former Minister for the Environment & Local Government, Martin Cullen, however the scheme was committed to under the previous minister, Noel Dempsey. The system lacked any Voter Verified Paper Audit Trailas specified by the government, and after a campaign by Irish Citizens for Trustworthy EVoting (ICTE) and opposition parties in Dáil Éireann, the government set up the Commission on Electronic Voting http://www.cev.ie/, to examine the proposed system.
The Commission's report stated that it was unable to verify the accuracy and secrecy of the proposed system in the available time frame. Due to this statement the government was forced to postpone the introduction of the electronic voting system. Since the system was not used, many members of the public feel that it was a waste of money.
However in July 2006 the CEV in their second and final report concluded that the use of the voting machines would be save!
http://www.cev.ie/htm/report/download_second.htm
Quote:
Voting and Counting Equipment
The Commission can recommend the voting and counting equipment as follows:
• The voting machine and related hardware components are of good quality and their design,
which is based on voting systems that have been reliable in use elsewhere for some years, has
also remained stable since their adaptation for use in Ireland. Subject to some minor security
and usability enhancements, followed by extended and rigorous testing once they have been so
modified, the voting machine and related components can be confidently recommended for use.
• The embedded software of the voting machine is also of adequate quality, requiring only minor
modifications followed by further analysis to confirm its reliability.
The government has spent €52 million on electronic voting machines and spends €800,000 per annum to store the machines. They do not work reliably[1] and can be interfered with to affect the outcome of an election and the software proposed is inadequate for the task[2]. The prime issue is the lack of verifiability by the absence of an audit mechanism or paper trail. Bertie Ahern defended the flawed system and has said in the Dáil, that elections after 2007 should be done without ''stupid old pencils''.
The voting machines bought by the Government from Dutch firm Nedap are in storage as the cabinet ponders what to do after the Commission on Electronic Voting said it could not recommend the system. Approximately €0.5m is expected to be spent improving the software. Ahern has defended the system despite public scepticism and opposition from within his own party[1] on the basis that having spent the money, it would cause loss of national pride if the system were scrapped.
In October 2006, a group of Dutch hackers, including Rop Gonggrijp, showed how similar machines to the ones purchased in Ireland could be modified by replacing the E-proms with Nedap -Firmware with E-proms with their own firmware.[2]
[3] This is contentious as in the Netherlands, 10% of voting machines from the touch screen type manufactured by another vendor named SDU http://www.newvote.nl/ are abandoned in the November 2006 and March 2007 Dutch elections and the Dutch Government is to reintroduce paper ballots in those locations and to review the system in the other 90% of cases after the elections in November 2006.[4]
Revelations under the Freedom of Information acts in the Netherlands, reveal extraordinary actions by Nedap interests after the Gonggrijp revelations of faulty Nedap systems, to suppress bad publicity about their system.[5]
1. Scrap €52m e-voting system, says councillor.
2. Nedap/Groenendaal ES3B voting computer, a security analysis
3. Dutch citizens group cracks Nedap's voting computer
4. Dutch government scraps plans to use voting computers in 35 cities including Amsterdam
5. Dutch FOI disclosures reveal the odd business of evoting
★ Voting machine
★ Electronic voting
★ CEV homepage
★ ICTE homepage
★ The Government's site to provide information on evoting
★ Irish Computer Society submission calling for VVAT
The Commission's report stated that it was unable to verify the accuracy and secrecy of the proposed system in the available time frame. Due to this statement the government was forced to postpone the introduction of the electronic voting system. Since the system was not used, many members of the public feel that it was a waste of money.
However in July 2006 the CEV in their second and final report concluded that the use of the voting machines would be save!
http://www.cev.ie/htm/report/download_second.htm
Quote:
Voting and Counting Equipment
The Commission can recommend the voting and counting equipment as follows:
• The voting machine and related hardware components are of good quality and their design,
which is based on voting systems that have been reliable in use elsewhere for some years, has
also remained stable since their adaptation for use in Ireland. Subject to some minor security
and usability enhancements, followed by extended and rigorous testing once they have been so
modified, the voting machine and related components can be confidently recommended for use.
• The embedded software of the voting machine is also of adequate quality, requiring only minor
modifications followed by further analysis to confirm its reliability.
The government has spent €52 million on electronic voting machines and spends €800,000 per annum to store the machines. They do not work reliably[1] and can be interfered with to affect the outcome of an election and the software proposed is inadequate for the task[2]. The prime issue is the lack of verifiability by the absence of an audit mechanism or paper trail. Bertie Ahern defended the flawed system and has said in the Dáil, that elections after 2007 should be done without ''stupid old pencils''.
The voting machines bought by the Government from Dutch firm Nedap are in storage as the cabinet ponders what to do after the Commission on Electronic Voting said it could not recommend the system. Approximately €0.5m is expected to be spent improving the software. Ahern has defended the system despite public scepticism and opposition from within his own party[1] on the basis that having spent the money, it would cause loss of national pride if the system were scrapped.
In October 2006, a group of Dutch hackers, including Rop Gonggrijp, showed how similar machines to the ones purchased in Ireland could be modified by replacing the E-proms with Nedap -Firmware with E-proms with their own firmware.[2]
[3] This is contentious as in the Netherlands, 10% of voting machines from the touch screen type manufactured by another vendor named SDU http://www.newvote.nl/ are abandoned in the November 2006 and March 2007 Dutch elections and the Dutch Government is to reintroduce paper ballots in those locations and to review the system in the other 90% of cases after the elections in November 2006.[4]
Revelations under the Freedom of Information acts in the Netherlands, reveal extraordinary actions by Nedap interests after the Gonggrijp revelations of faulty Nedap systems, to suppress bad publicity about their system.[5]
| Contents |
| References |
| See also |
| External links |
References
1. Scrap €52m e-voting system, says councillor.
2. Nedap/Groenendaal ES3B voting computer, a security analysis
3. Dutch citizens group cracks Nedap's voting computer
4. Dutch government scraps plans to use voting computers in 35 cities including Amsterdam
5. Dutch FOI disclosures reveal the odd business of evoting
See also
★ Voting machine
★ Electronic voting
External links
★ CEV homepage
★ ICTE homepage
★ The Government's site to provide information on evoting
★ Irish Computer Society submission calling for VVAT
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