Electronic voting blamed for Quebec municipal election 'disaster'

[whirlygigspin]

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/10/25/voting-results.html

"Quebec's chief electoral officer is urging the province to stop using electronic voting systems.

The election was an expensive disaster marked by errors, which produced inaccurate numbers and unreliable results, the report said. And the new electronic system is to blame, it adds."


Evaluation Report of the New Methods of Voting
http://www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/en/nouvelleDetail.asp?id=2153&typeN=2

- The Chief Electoral Officer Sets Very Stringent Conditions for the Future Use of Electronic Voting if it is Maintained, includes:

That the legislation governing the use of these methods of voting must be reviewed and better defined, including the memoranda of understanding signed by the municipalities with the Chief Electoral Officer and the Minister of Municipal Affaires and Regions.

Rigorous technical specifications as well as security and reliability norms and standards must be adopted before any future use of a new method of voting. A group of experts must be created in this respect.
An independent authority must be vested with a mandate to monitor and the powers to audit and control the norms and standards related to the new methods of voting.

competent authorities should have access to the programming codes and source codes of the software used in the voting systems;

the implementation of mandatory and complete tests on all equipment to be used in an election;
the establishment of backup plans covering all potential problems;

the swearing in of all those responsible for programming and installing systems and software and providing technical support and troubleshooting;

the implementation of strict measures for the storage and safekeeping of systems used;
the adoption of measures aimed at ensuring that, after the election, the supplier destroys data recorded on the electronic voting systems.


links to the reports and news conferences:
http://www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/en/nouvelleDetail.asp?id=94&typeN=1
Video link: (in French/English at 39minutes in)
http://diffusion.assnat.qc.ca/video/CONF/CONF20061024MB.wmv

[marmar]

1. Every electronic voting machine on the planet needs to be nuked...

:nuke:

[struggle4progress]

2. Just need some low-tech robustness testing with baseball bats n/t

[Spazito]

3. The debacle in the Quebec municipal elections in 05....

has resulted in a good thing, imo, that being a moratorium on electronic voting in Quebec. There is now a record of how bad electronic voting is that can be used when the pro-electronic voting groups try to convince our government that we should move in that direction.

"The report is enough to convince Quebec to keep its current ban on electronic voting, said Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau."

[w4rma]

4. Omg, how could Canada do something so stupid as to implement these

very expensive pieces of junk?

[Canuckistanian]

8. The problem is not that the machines are "junk"

As a poster further down noted, Diebold makes bank machines which operate reliably 99.98% of the time.
The hardware is perfectly capable of working properly.

The problem is the software.

There's no security, no transparency, too many uncontrolled versions.

My own theory is that they're deliberately making "glitches" that look like machine failures but are actually an excuse for a technician to "fix" a machine by installing new (and malicious) software.

[formercia]

5. Important

"competent authorities should have access to the programming codes and source codes of the software used in the voting systems;"

[grasswire]

6. time for a Congressional investigation for consumer protection

Seriously. We wouldn't stand for such shabby performance from an auto manufacturer or an appliance manufacturer.

Doesn't the Lemon Law cover this? Municipalities need to sue for their money back.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Diebold can handle millions of bank transactions every day

with very few errors, if any.

Yet, they can't count votes? And it takes millions of dollars in flawed computer equipment to not be able to carry out this simple task.