Funferal

Whelan on electronic voting

At What Cost? PRO Paul Whelan is likely to be speaking on Joe Duffy’s Liveline tomorrow afternoon talking about electronic voting and our campaign. I attach, below the email he sent to the programme.

Dear Joe,
I have been listening with interest to some of the comments about Electronic Voting. Now as you can tell by the fact I am emailing you I am no Luddite, but I am wholeheartedly against this project as it now stands for a number of reasons:

1. There is no verifiable paper backup. Which means if something goes wrong on the day of the poll such as a catastrophic failure in one or more machines we will end up disenfranchising people.
2. The Operating system for the Counting machines is Microsoft Windows 98, which Microsoft officially stopped supporting on January 1st 2004. So the Operating system is already out of Date!
3. The cost: to-date this project has cost Euro 40 million (in other words the budget for 15 years of votes/Elections) then we add the promotional costs of Euro 5 million, for the Campaign Minister Cullen launched today.
4. Lack of Independent Research!
5. The Fact this measure is being brought in by a Minister and being overseen by his department and not by an independent body such as An Electoral Commission! Regardless of whether we feel we can trust Ministers to remain democratic or not, best democratic principles would dictate that the participants in elections and their associates should retain a distance from the administration of the Democratic Process.
6. 1. Security of the actual machines.
      We all know that Computers and other Electronic Devices are susceptible to Electro-Magnetic Disruption. Are these machines shielded against such problems and if they are not what will it cost to do so? If someone was to set out with the objective of disrupting the Electoral process all they would have to do is bring a strong magnet into the polling booth and they could conceivably scramble the Machines! This would be the equivalent of someone throwing a lit match into a ballot box!

   2. While these machine are stand alone because of their dated operating system and lack of knowledge of how these machines will be stored between elections and calibrated for each vote we have no assurance that the programming code cannot be altered (Yes highly unlikely but at the moment you cannot even dream of recalibrating a paper ballot)
7. Inability of an elector to spoil a vote. I would remind you and your listeners Joe that in the 1990 Presidential Election the third placed candidate In Tallaght was Dustin the Turkey! Vote spoiling is a way the electorate has of communicating their Dissatisfaction with all political alternatives while at the same time showing they believe the right to vote is inviolable. With what the minister suggests, that he is unwilling to accommodate such a minority at the ballot box he is being blatantly undemocratic! Even to the extent that with the option he has offered being a breach of the secrecy of the ballot and being reminiscent of the ‘Rotten Boroughs’ of the 19th Century. (I wish to point out I have never personally spoilt a vote in my life.)
8. The current system works and works well! The Minister’s suggestion that because we are a modern information age country that we have to abandon what has been seen around the world as one of the most democratic systems does not make sense and is really a facile argument on the part of the Minister!
9. Most experts are against this system as we saw from the presentation to the Dail sub-committee addressing the Issue!
10. The people were not asked about this change in Voting! We had two referenda on the changing of the voting weights at the European Council of Ministers (Nice 1 & 2) yet we have not had one vote on the radical way in which we are changing the way we vote!
11. The Minister will say that by bringing electronic voting we will boost voter turnout. While this may be true for the first such vote the novelty value will soon wear off. While many people who are afraid quite genuinely of anything to do with computers will stay away from the polling stations not just for one poll but possibly for the rest of their lives!
12. In a healthy democracy people should always remain sceptical of a Government regardless of political makeup. As such I don’t trust any Government to be honest with my vote! Under the current system I do not have to be trusting as with counters, Tallymen, cameras etc. my vote can physically be seen and be recounted in full view – not so when your Vote is reduced to a piece of Computer code!

I could go on Joe but in short ‘If it ain’t broke don’t Fix it’
Kind Regards,
Paul Whelan