Paper Vote Canada

Jason Kitcat points out a Communications of the ACM special October 2004 issue on e-voting.

Unfortunately absolutely none of the content appears to be available free online, you will need to purchase it (or access through university library etc.)

Also see IEEE Security and Privacy Jan/Feb 2004 Special issue on E-voting Security.

What I want to know, what is in fact absolutely fundamental to any e-voting discussion, is what standards apply. Are there any Canadian ones at all? Do municipalities and provinces just cook them up on a case-by-case basis, falling out a couple line items in a gigantic RFP that talks mostly about irrelevant performance measures?

(Side note: US standards efforts include ACM Policy Brief and IEEE P1583.)

Anyway, I'm trying to find some sites that might have starting points. There are some links suggested by the document in the previous posting.

Government of Ontario: Information and Technology Standards

Ontario Office of the Corporate Chief Information Officer

So far I have yet to see any standards that apply to e-voting.

On the CIO site I did find more vague language though, that's always good.
In Citizen Engagement

What might this mean?

Electronic citizen engagement may take many forms. ...

* online remote voting for elected officials
* digital voting

I don't even know what they mean by digital voting. Do they mean electronic voting machines?

Canadian municipalities seem to love the siren call of techno-fixes. Efficiency will result! Services enhanced! Customer (that is, citizen) satisfaction metrics improved!

There's something called MISA, the Municipal Information Systems Association of Ontario.

They published a report in 2002, Progress Report on e-Government Among Ontario Municipalities (PDF)

In Chapter 2: Municipal Progress In e-Government they describe a future that obviously sounds wonderful to them

What will municipalities be like in Ontario within the next decade?

...

Municipalities will be more responsive to citizens.

...

Voting in elections or other special occasions will consist of quick, effortless clicks on computer screens. Voter turnout will no longer plummet when it rains or snows.

Voting is a civic duty. You want to make voting no different than clicking in some online poll? One minute I'm buying a book on Amazon, next I'm answering a Globe poll Does shopping on-line still make you nervous? and with the next click I'm electing the leaders of my country? You really don't think there should be any distinction between those activities?

The new Municipal Elections Act, 1996 opened the door to the use of new technology in the municipal election process. For the first time, Ontario municipalities could explore new voting technologies, including voting by telephone, touch screen voting and the use of optical scanners to speed the counting process.

Ok well at least I know where this foolishness started. Now to see about closing that door.

I don't get this obsession with the speed of the counting. We can't wait a day or two for the results to be counted? Ontario will spiral into chaos if we don't get the election decision seconds after the polls close? Wouldn't you rather have a cheap, accurate and relatively quick system rather than an instantaneous incorrect one?

(Progress report link found in Municipalities move to second-gen portals to provide citizen e-services, Technology in Government, May/June 2004.)

E-Vote Fears Soar in Swing States
Wired News - September 23, 2004

Roughly a third of the votes cast in the November presidential election will be made on controversial paperless electronic voting machines, but as any political analyst can tell you, the only votes that will matter a great deal will be cast in a handful of swing states.

More Diebold E-Voting Vulnerabilities
Slashdot - September 22, 2004

This Week in [US] E-Voting
research.yale.edu/lawmeme/ - Rebecca Bolin - September 16, 2004

Jason Kitcat reports No e-voting in [the UK] in 2005?
j-dom.org - September 17, 2004

He has a very nicely organized site, tons of e-voting blog entries, articles etc. linked from the bottom of the above posting.

The Atomz search (in the area on the right) seems to be broken. You can use the Google search (at the top) in the meantime.

There are lots of links about the processes of elections at University of Victoria, Faculty of Social Sciences - Political Science 333: Representation and Electoral Systems.

E-democracy and E-government: how will these affect libraries? - The Case of Canada from 68th IFLA Council and General Conference 2002

Meanwhile, at the federal level, Members of Parliament have yet to decide on electronic voting.
One of them, Reg Alcock, believes certain criteria will have to be met before MPs can accept the introduction of electronic voting at the federal level. In an editorial published earlier this year, Mr. Alcock stated:

There must be a means of authenticating identity and there must be a secure channel for the transmission of the information. Once these conditions are met two important trends are enabled. First the ability to vote online will dramatically reduce the cost of voting. This in turn will allow more frequent use of referenda and will shift the balance of control from Parliament to citizens. Rather than voting once every four years, citizens will be able to express opinions more frequently. The impact will be greater accountability. Second…MPs will no longer have to be present to vote. This in turn will enhance the importance of their individual vote while reducing the importance of the place. The impact will be greater participation. (Canadian Parliamentary Review, Spring 2002, p. 2)

Following the most recent election, Reg Alcock maintains his position as President of the Treasury Board.

The guest editorial cited above was Parliament and Democracy in the 21st Century: The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies from Volume 25 no. 1, 2002.

Mr. Alcock is a big fan of technology. Here he is in the Canadian Parliamentary Review in 1994:

At the federal level one a number of projects and studies are underway but as one MP, Reg Alcock, stated, "At the present time, the "hill" does not have a node [on the Internet]. There is a proposal to establish one and I expect that we will be hooked up soon. I don't think it will change much in the near future. At the present time, as far as I can discern, I am the only member who makes use of the Internet; I have a lot of constituents on the Internet as I represent a university in my riding."

(Volume 17, No. 3 Autumn 1994, "E-Mail and Two Way Communication")

An excerpt from "Implementation of Electronic Voting in the UK Technical Options Report" (found via the CCSR list).

A Comparison with Other Secure Transactions

It is useful to compare voting with other online transactions for which security is needed.

The most obvious comparison is with banking. Attacking an electronic voting system is unlikely to bring the immediate financial rewards that a successful attack on the banking system would, and thus some types of well-resourced attack are less likely. However, the likelihood of well-resourced attacks is still sufficiently high to be problematic.

The consequences of a successful attack are very different with electronic voting, than with banking, though. Banks can, and do, take a financial analysis of how much loss they can stand and insure against such losses. It may be that a political decision could be taken that the loss of a certain percentage of votes is acceptable, but in the absence of such a decision, security appropriate for banking cannot be considered sufficient for electronic voting. Banks have also maintained confidence in the face of repeated losses through computer crime by covering up the cause of those losses. It is inconceivable that, in the event of a successful attack on electronic voting, such a cover-up would be acceptable to the electorate if subsequently disclosed. In a similar vein, individuals can be, and are, compensated for financial losses due to disruption/failures/hacking of online banking. It is not easy to see how there could be equivalent compensation for disruption/failures/hacking of an individuals vote, even if somehow it was discovered which individuals were affected (which might not be possible with some sorts of disruption).

Another issue is anonymity: electronic voting differs from the aforementioned applications due to the fact that, in addition to the requirements for accuracy and privacy, there is the mandated necessity to provide ... anonymity. In other words, banking applications can (in fact must) allow tracking back to the user of the system, but the [electronic voting system] must ensure that such tracking is impossible. (Mercuri, 2001, pp8-9).

Electronic voting also differs from financial transactions in that the risk that an election delayed by a few days will have a different result is unacceptably high. By contrast substantial financial transactions between two willing partners usually can be conducted a few days later if there are problems with ecommerce applications, since such transactions are rarely conducted on a whim.

UK Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, list of electronic voting news articles, papers, reports etc. Not suprisingly, lots of good UK-related links.

The Mezonic Agenda takes an interesting tack on the e-voting issue: it presents a fictional story about the nightmare scenario of an e-voting company deliberately trying to provide fraudulent results for the US election.

Now personally, I am inclined to avoid conspiracy theories.
I think there are some fundamental problems with e-voting that simply can't be fixed no matter how good the technology is,
plus which, the actual implementations of the existing technology are farcically bad, showing a complete lack of interest or complete incompetence when it comes to security, testing, design and so forth.

O'Reilly has an article Behind the Scenes at The Mezonic Agenda: An Electronic Voting Primer

and the book website is

mezonicagenda.com

join in

I just want to let people know, I am inviting collaboration both for this blog and for organizing Canadians to oppose electronic and Internet voting.

If you're interested in either or both of these possibilities, please send me an email.

For the blog, it's mainly locating and posting stories about e-voting issues, particularly any that have a Canadian element.

For organizing, it's basically getting a anti-evote group together that can present compelling arguments drawing both on common sense, technical expertise, and examples of problems encountered with systems in Canada and worldwide. We need to target all levels of Canadian government and make sure that our representatives are aware of the problems with these systems, as well as making the Canadian public aware of what is going on.

We also need to forge alliances with Canadian groups that might be concerned about this area, e.g. Electronic Frontier Canada and IEEE Canada, as well as with the current well-organized US groups that are fighting e-voting there. There is also the possibility of working with groups that have similar, although not completely aligned interests. For example, there is a thing called FairVote Canada which is about proportional representation. I presonally don't think proportional representation is a good idea, but some of their members may also be concerned about e-voting. As well, the independent or alternative media and organizations may be interested in this issue, e.g. ontario.indymedia.org

Now if someone knows of an organization in Canada that is ALREADY working on the e-vote issue, I would be more than happy to join up with them.

I am planning on publishing a story to indymedia today, unless someone else wants to do it first.

UPDATE: I posted the story electronic voting in Ontario Sept-2004 to ontario.indymedia.ca

UPDATE 2016-09-05: As of September 2016 the current most active issues related to online voting in Canada are

• A Parliamentary & Ministerial consultation about having national online voting - See Get informed about online voting
• A consultation in New Brunswick about having provincial online voting

Yesterday's comp.risks has a number of stories about electronic voting, including one submitted by me.

You can read comp.risks in various ways
Google Groups
directly in your USENET newsreader
on the risks.org website (which includes an RSS feed and an AvantGo channel)

One story that caught my eye was
SiliconValley.com - MercuryNews.com - Sep. 14, 2004
Maryland court rejects e-voting safeguards

Maryland's highest court Tuesday rejected demands for additional safeguards for touchscreen voting machines, saying elections officials have done everything necessary to ensure the paperless devices are accurate and secure.

The Court of Appeals also rejected a call to allow citizens who do not trust touchscreen voting to use paper ballots in the Nov. 2 general election.

Incidentally, for better RSS feed usability, I am changing my posting format.
It will now be

headline
source - date
content

Toronto Sun - September 3, 2004
Voting time warp

ONTARIO'S Election Act is stuck in an era of typewriters and stenographers when it should be open to new ideas such as Web and telephone voting, Ontario's chief election officer says. In a written review of last October's general election, John Hollins said Ontario's legislation hasn't been overhauled since 1969 and is a long way from addressing 21st-century society.

"The Election Act reflects a view of Ontario and its electorate that is locked in time, representing the world of the late 1960s, when the legislation was last overhauled," the report states.

He's recommending that the province examine a variety of initiatives taking place globally, including voting through a cable box.

CFRA - September 3, 2004
Election Officer Calls for Ontario to Explore Web Voting

Ontario's chief election officer says the province should be open to new ideas such as web and telephone voting.

In a written review of last October's election John Hollins says the Ontario Election Act is stuck in an era of typewriters and stenographers and is a long way from addressing 21st-century society.

Hollins recommended that the province examine a variety of initiatives taking place globally, including voting through a cable box.

Yahoo News - USA Today - Sep 13, 2004
Electronic ballots fail to gain vote of confidence

In Nye County, Nev., last week, one of the new, highly touted electronic-voting devices bought to replace discredited old-technology machines malfunctioned. When the polls closed in the state primary election, it refused to display the results, threatening to disenfranchise everyone who'd used it.

There are currently two "opportunities" on MERX for Ontario electronic voter technology. One is for voter registration, the other is for voting.

Alternative Voting Methods - Pilot Application

I am quoting the entire thing here since it will probably expire off of MERX soon.

Reference Number 103027
Source ID PV.MN.ON.427751.C55080
Solicitation Number EO-040823-1
Published 24/08/2004
Revised
Closing 10/09/2004 04:00 PM Eastern Daylight Saving Time EDT
Associated Components Yes
Category EDP Hardware and Software
Tender Type Request for Qualification
Region of Delivery WORLD
Region of Opportunity WORLD
Agreement Type
Solicitation Method
Estimated Value
Organization Name Elections Ontario

GSINS N7010 AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT, SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

The purpose of this project is for Elections Ontario to identify proponents who have the expertise, resources and appropriate technology to provide alternative voting systems that could be tested in by-elections over the next three years, or that could be tested in other environments that would offer clear measurement of the value, effectiveness and integrity of the alternative approaches.

At present, voters must attend in person at a polling place on election day or on one of the six specific days when advance polls are being held in the Returning Office or at an area location. The only alternative to voting at a polling location under the current legislation is for an elector to designate a proxy to vote on his or her behalf at a polling place. Electors with disabilities, language issues or who are absent during the voting period could benefit from and utilize alternative voting methods when voting.

Conceptually, alternative voting systems could be used to supplement the existing process or could provide a substitute for it, provided that elector access is not in any way limited.

The system(s) proposed will supplement an optical scan vote tabulator system being tested for use on Election Day and advance voting. The system(s) we are requesting information on will be used to offer an opportunity to electors to vote between Nomination Day and Election Day. We want to make the voting process as convenient, accessible and easy for voters to exercise their franchise while maintaining the integrity of the election process. The system(s) would be administered anywhere in the province of Ontario where a by-election is called. Currently the province is divided into 103 electoral districts. In each electoral district there are approximately 80,000 electors serviced at approximately 90 voting locations on Election Day.

The other one is Automated Voter Recording System

This project will deliver a method(s) or system(s) to strike off voters (simultaneously) from all electronic Advance Poll Lists of Electors and electronic Election Day List of Electors to reduce the possibility of voter fraud through electors voting more than once during the voting period. The method will utilize bar codes on all NRCs, registration forms and paper versions of the List of Electors.

Miami Herald - Sep. 12, 2004
Dave Barry cracks wise again about electronic voting

The truth is, you don't know WHAT will happen to your ballot, because you might be using one of the new electronic voting machines. ...

So this year many states are switching to electronic voting machines, which use computer technology -- the same reliable, foolproof technology we use in the newspaper industry to wwr _)(%$@!@hkjhou((*7**%$ ERROR ERROR DELETING EVERYTHING FROM DAWN OF TIME

Whoops! It turns out that things CAN go wrong with computer technology. One big concern is that electronic voting machines could be tampered with by ''hackers,'' ...

But aside from that, electronic voting machines are a great idea, according to people who make millions of dollars selling them.

Story spotted on Slashdot /.