Paper Vote Canada

eWeek - June 29, 2004
Rights Groups Seek E-Vote System Source Code Access

Civil rights advocates and computer experts today urged all counties planning to use DRE (direct recording electronic), or touch-screen, voting systems to immediately implement security precautions, including independent expert access to the systems' source code.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law issued a set of minimum essential security steps recommended by Eric Lazarus and a team of IT security experts, including Howard Schmidt, former cyber-security advisor to the White House.

Report - Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Brennan Center for Justice

Recommendations for Improving Reliability of Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems

Full Report - Improving Reliability of Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems (PDF, 245KB)

The Mercury News - Mon, Jun. 28, 2004
E-vote directive has counties upset, concerned about costs

Election officials in 14 California counties are busily piecing together plans to bring paper ballots back to polling booths for the November presidential election.

Under orders from Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, counties that had leaped to electronic voting must backtrack. Some must abandon their touch-screen systems for now; others can keep them if they supplement the electronic balloting with paper versions.

It's part of Shelley's mandate to ensure an accurate vote count so California isn't branded with the ignominious reputation that plagued Florida after the 2000 presidential election.

Once again, Canada's simple, transparent, efficient paper-based voting system has given us timely, accurate election results.

This blog is about preventing a change to electronic voting systems, which have tremendous disadvantages.

If you want to discuss the election itself, you can try BlogsCanada E-Group Election Blog.

If you want basic info on the election, check out CanadaInfo: Election 2004.

It's Election Day in Canada.
GO. VOTE.

There is no electronic or Internet voting at the Federal level.
See summary link in sidebar on the right for more info.

The Pew Charitable Trusts: Advancing Policy Solutions: Election reform - April 2004
Securing the Vote: Can Americans Trust the Voting Machines?
links to a 513KB PDF

Wired News - June 15, 2004
State Sets Standard for E-Voting

The California secretary of state on Tuesday released the first standards in the nation for a voter-verified paper trail for electronic voting machines, in an effort to restore voter confidence in the devices.

Akron Beacon Journal
League of Women Voters rescinds e-vote approval

The League of Women Voters rescinded its support of paperless voting machines on Monday after hundreds of angry members voiced concern that paper ballots were the only way to safeguard elections from fraud, hackers or computer malfunctions.

About 800 delegates who attended the nonpartisan league's biennial convention in Washington voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that supports "voting systems and procedures that are secure, accurate, recountable and accessible."

New York Times - June 13, 2004
Gambling on Voting

If election officials want to convince voters that electronic voting can be trusted, they should be willing to make it at least as secure as slot machines. To appreciate how poor the oversight on voting systems is, it's useful to look at the way Nevada systematically ensures that electronic gambling machines in Las Vegas operate honestly and accurately. Electronic voting, by comparison, is rife with lax procedures, security risks and conflicts of interest.

Via blogdex.

Slashdot - June 13, 2004
Flaw in Florida E-Voting Machines

Slashdot
Who's Blocking Verified E-Voting?

Durango Herald - AP - June 11, 2004
Fight over e-vote riles League of Women Voters

A battle over electronic voting is threatening the cohesion of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, whose national leadership is refusing to endorse demands by hundreds of members for a paper trail to guard against fraud, hackers and malfunctions.

Some local chapters are so angry they are flouting regulations and planning to speak against the national stance today and Saturday at the league's biennial convention in Washington. They're threatening to nominate new board members and a new candidate for president who would rescind the league's support for paperless voting systems.

Reuters - Jun 8, 2004
Official Calls for Greater E-Vote Security

Electronic voting machines should print out ballots or include other security measures to ensure they work properly in the November presidential election, the top U.S. elections official said on Tuesday.

Elections Assistance Commission Chairman DeForest Soaries said local officials need to take extra steps to ensure that electronic votes do not fall victim to computer glitches or hacking attempts.

"The increased use of electronic voting devices has created security concerns that the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission must address," Soaries told a group of Maryland elections officials.

The Stanford Daily - May 7, 2004
Prof. helps get voting machines in state decertified

After more than a year of pressure from leaders like Computer Science Prof. David Dill, California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley banned the use of touch-screen voting machines in four counties last Friday and decertified all touch-screen voting systems in the state until security concerns have been resolved.

Akron Beacon Journal - June 08, 2004
Diebold bans execs' political gifts

Meanwhile, the Ohio secretary of state's office learned Monday that only four counties will use electronic voting machines in the November election. All will use Diebold equipment, provided a series of security requirements are met.

Thirty-one counties were eligible to use touch-screen machines this year, but most backed out after the state Controlling Board released $38 million to buy them. Those counties included Medina and Portage.

Uncertainty is the main reason so many boards of elections decided to wait, said Carlo LoParo of the secretary of state's office. County officials are worried about a new law requiring a paper record of every vote and they're worried about upgrading any machines they buy this year.

Los Angeles Times
E-Vote Fight Has Plenty of Human Drama Too
I'm not sure what other kinds of drama you can have, but anyway.

By taking a tough stance on questions about electronic voting, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has gained a national profile — and made some enemies among local election officials along the way.

Shelley, who halted electronic voting in California in April and ordered counties to comply with a long list of improvements, said in an interview Monday that he was disappointed by the personal nature of some of the criticism. But some county registrars, who contend he's jeopardizing their ability to run a smooth and accurate election in November, say Shelley deserves the blame.

telegraph.co.uk - June 6, 2004
Postal ballot in chaos as one man gets 36 votes

A Telegraph investigation reveals flaws in the Government's postal voting system that leave this week's elections open to fraud, writes David Bamber

Britain's postal voting system, viewed by the Government as a key to improving electoral turnout, is open to wide abuse, an investigation by The Telegraph has discovered.


I was able to obtain fraudulently dozens of ballot papers without detection. A total of 36 ballot papers were sent to one address in London without local councils or the police discovering or investigating the ploy.


Postal voting was made easier by the Government in 1999 in an attempt to tackle low turnout on polling day.

FCW.com (I think this stands for Federal Computing World) - June 3, 2004
E-voting requires risk management
(Like almost all the links I post, this is from a Google alert.)

The summary of the Canadian electronic voting situation is that although it hasn't happened yet at the Federal level, despite a worrying quote from Don Boudria,
there have been various instances at the municipal level, and the municipal politicians seem to like it a lot.

Also you may recall recently the political parties have tried electronic means of voting during their party conventions, with varying degrees of disaster.

As far as I know, the municipal electronic voting is not following any national, provincial, or local standards.

The one that got the most press was Markham, as it was not only electronic, but actually Internet based.

Broadband Magazine, Markham site, Slashdot story
IT Business.ca story
some tech details on the Markham vote
Technology in Government article

It seems that CANARIE and Industry Canada are encouraging electronic voting.

City of Coquitlam
Industry Canada Smart Communities

The most worrying report I have seen so far is New Brunswick's chief electoral officer is reviewing the possibility of using electronic voting machines on a wide basis.

UPDATE 2004-09-12: Ontario is now also looking at electronic and Internet voting.

UPDATE 2004-11-13: You can also check out (and contribute to) the summary that I am building at Wikipedia - Electronic voting in Canada.

The rest of this site will give you an overview of the worldwide situation.
In the US, e-voting has raised huge issues.
In Ireland, it was so controversial that it ended up being scrapped completely.

Welcome to all Carnival of Canucks #20 visitors.

New York Times Magazine A Really Open Election.
Via Slashdot NYT Calls For Open-Source Election Machines.

I have an easier idea. How about no source and no voting machines.

law.com / Miami Daily Business Review - 05-27-2004
New Questions Arise About Touch-Screen Voting Machines
In audit of iVotronic's performance in a Florida city, 162 ballots failed to appear, flaw was slow to surface