French e-voting hit hard by vocal detractors

France has been using e-voting machines since 2003, and most notably in the 2005 European constitutional 2005, where 50 e-voting municipalities were in play, but now that the number has climbed to 80 (out of 36,000), and a presidential election is at stake, several parties are crying foul -- and quite loudly. No specific incidents of fraud have been cited yet, but protesters sued to ban the machines outright a week before the election, noting that some models don't comply with a dual-key requirement for safety from fraud, and others, such as the iVotronic machines, have new software, but haven't been re-verified since 2005. After the first round of voting on Sunday, objections have become even more vocal, with The Socialists, the Communist Party and the Greens all banding together to decry the e-voting method as a "catastrophe." Apparently the machines posed a particular obstacle to the elderly, with some researches claiming that as many as four out of seven people over 65 couldn't vote properly. Also, voting lines were long in general, and the two hour wait on some e-voting machines apparently caused some voters to leave. The interior ministry claims they have had no problems with the machines since they were introduced in 2003. With 12 presidential candidates in the election, the three parties speaking up here by no means comprise a majority, but we're guessing we won't be hearing the end of this for a good while -- especially if things don't go their way in round two of the votes.

Read - French parties call voting machines a "catastrophe"
Read - Protestors sue to stop e-voting

[Kev50027 @ Apr 24th 2007 3:03PM]

France in general is a catastrophe. Paris has some of the highest depression rates in the world, more than 4 times that of the US.

[pwmdv @ Apr 24th 2007 3:37PM]

Gee, and I just moved to Paris 2 years ago to get out of the catastrophe that is the US of A and couldn't be happier.

[Juaquin @ Apr 24th 2007 3:51PM]

What is so wrong about paper and a marker? If you can't mark a box, you don't deserve to vote. If you screw up, go ask for another. No hanging chads, no hacking, and everyone understands the basic principle - "Oh, I mark the box next to my choice. It's like a multiple choice test!"

Seriously folks, just because we CAN use technology doesn't mean we always SHOULD.

Sure, counting paper ballots takes awhile and we live in an impatient world, but I think a little waiting time is worth a more accurate vote, don't you agree?

[David @ Apr 24th 2007 5:53PM]

"Seriously folks, just because we CAN use technology doesn't mean we always SHOULD."

I agree. I just came out of overseeing my third student election on a campus of 9,000+ students, which happened to be the second major election in which we tallied the votes electronically (using the multiple-choice exam method of bubble-sheets). The consensus at the end of this election was to do away with the technological option and go back to hand-counting, as it turned out to be more accurate and we wouldn't have to worry about the mechanical errors that ended up slowing the process down every time.

I understand that a federal election counts a lot more votes than we did, but if a little more time were spent ensuring quality instead of going the instant gratification route, there would be less for people to complain about in the process and they could spend their time finding other things to complain about.

[Tomas @ Apr 24th 2007 4:13PM]

"with The Socialists, the Communist Party and the Greens all banding together..."

Somehow, I think that if any of these parties had come out on top in the first round, they would not be complaining. It's the same crap that the left does in the USA - trying to discredit an election by denouncing the process.

[Kev50027 @ Apr 24th 2007 9:58PM]

The depressing thing is that France is already socialist, and will continue to be so no matter who wins. Conservatives look at the US gov't and consider it bloated, check out France, they have so many useless organizations and government controls that it would scare a Republican shitless. It scares me..

[Azerty @ Apr 24th 2007 4:25PM]

I've just voted this Sunday in France for this election and I can tell you that we never use a pen a box to check, there is one small piece of paper PER candidate, you just put the one you want in the envelope, not so hard.
There is a petition running:
http://ordinateurs-de-vote.org/
Counting 79996 signatures.
I just hope to never have to use this machine one day.

[netposer @ Apr 24th 2007 4:34PM]

@Tomas

Exactly. If the left wins everything is A-OK. If they lose...then, of course it's fraud and e-voting problems.

Before the mid-terms the left was out in force about e-voting fraud, then they won the majority in the house and all of a sudden you stopped hearing about fraud--what a bunch of cry-babies

[kbiel @ Apr 24th 2007 4:42PM]

What? No snarky comments on the Diebold conspiracy? Where's the left-wing paranoia we've come to expect when reading about voting machines at Engadget?

[jybl @ Apr 24th 2007 6:05PM]

@ Tomas & Netposer:
You're right, that's usually how it works.
However, this time, people (including the parties you mentionned), started complaining BEFORE the election. And not just "lefties", but also "righties". I am amongst the latter and I've always strongly opposed to e-voting. There's no need to beleive in some crazy conspiracy to oppose e-voting. A minimal knoledge about electronics and computers is enough.

Like Azerty said, with the "old fashioned" way of voting, just one piece of paper in an envelope and voila!
Of course this method is more paper consuming than e-voting, but all the ballots and envelopes are made from recycled paper and are recycled after the election.

[SumbiJam @ Apr 24th 2007 6:09PM]

Why should people who can't figure out how to vote, be allowed to vote?

[pablo @ Apr 24th 2007 7:24PM]

their is an important things to note, that is the owner of those e-voting machines is the the brother of Nicolas Sarkozi the favorite with the majority in this current election.

[l2k @ Apr 25th 2007 12:47AM]

Proof of citizenship before voting. Vote on a paper ballot using indelible ink to provide a paper trail. Dip finger in ink after voting to reduce fraud. Typical, common citzens as election judges counting the ballots in precints. Publicly posted and published ballot results from each precint audited by the election judges.

Once again - leaving something as important as the security of an electoral system in the hands of a few voting machine companies and individuals of opportunity is recipie for fraud. Technology is great, the integrity of the process is more important than speed or convenience. Democracies have been holding polls for over 200 years without the need for frickin' touchscreens, and we can do it for 200 times 200 more!

[Agro @ Apr 27th 2007 9:05PM]

It is unbeliveable that the French people are using e-voting technology in elections. I do not know if this technology is similar to the Brazilian e-voting technology. The Brazilian e-voting machine is a kind of travesti very much appropriate for fraude and corruption. E-voting machine is for people without citizenship like the poor in Brazil. The perverse political elite decided to adopt a technology that was never discussed with the Brazilian society in general and Brazilian academics in particular. The poor people, most of them living under the poverty line, have very limited citizenship, but have the duty and the right to vote electronically.