Electronic voting outlawed in Ireland, Michael Flatley DVDs okay for now
By Tim Stevens 
posted April 28th 2009 7:23AM
posted April 28th 2009 7:23AM
[Via Techdirt]
posted April 28th 2009 7:23AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
back to those ticket counters........
they are probably outlawed to give the current government/whatever a bit more time
Choose who to blame:
A. The politician next to you.
B. Some random guy across the street.
well they use IRV so its more who is the #1 pick to blame.
That's a good thing.
As a gadgetlover I normally like electronic stuff, but it's just not suitable for everything.
People should check out the great work they're doing over at http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ and their doc, Hacking Democracy, eye opening stuff. pen and paper anyday.
very good thing
Electronic Voting needs to be outlawed in America too. They are too vulnerable to hackers and cheating political goons.
Because, paper is soooo much better. Only reason E-Voting machines don't work is cause they didn't use teh Linux. I love how much BS the whole Green movement is. For every step forward we take in "Green technology" someone does something twice as bad to the environment to compensate. In the future I bet they will look back at this period as a complete and utter failure.
E-voting ur doin it wrong.
Paper voting ur really doin it wrong.
You drag in 'Green Technology' by the hairs here. It has nothing to do with wether or not it is wise to vote electronically.
Ofcourse Linux -sort of- has to do with electronic voting, but even that still is not the real issue here.
The main problem with ANY way of electronic voting, is that ultimately it CAN be tampered with.
Whatever machines or software you use, what kind of software, however many people or groups are checking if everything is done in a correct manner, there will ALWAYS be ways to somehow hack the outcome.
This makes the results of the election untrustworthy.
Just look at the cat-and-mouse game DRM has become, whatever the copyright-holders come up with, eventually hackers find a way to circumvent it. There is a lot of money at stake in the media-busines, but I think everyone agrees that there is even more at stake at most big elections.
Now, before people go and say that it's possible to tamper with 'paper-voting' too: you are correct.
Ofcourse, EVERYTHING can be tampered with.
The difference is, however, that in order to have a substantial impact on the outcome of a 'paper-voting', one has to get a VERY LARGE group of people willing to commit the fraud with you. So that means loads more work preparing the fraud, and bribing lot's and lot's of people (or somehow getting a lot of people who are allready on your side in to the system). It also means a lot more risk, because more people have a chance of screwing things up, and also more chance that somebode can't keep a secret after all is done. Effectively you would have to have people cheating for you in more than half of the voting locations. Though it could be done in theory, in reallity it is impossible to pul this of without the general public or journalists to see what's happening.
I think everybody here agrees that it takes a LOT less to tamper with (the output of) hardware/software. Here the government and the manufacturers of the hardware/software may claim it is impossible, but reality has proven them wrong in many cases already.
714 million people are voting in national elections in India this year using EVMs which will save 10k tonnes of paper
oh yeah, and how much weight is it saving by using x kg machines?
Sheepman:
Exactly wtf do you mean by "by using x kg machines"?
he means the machines probably weigh more than the paper they saved and are also more expensive.
so it's not really a saving at all
There are other advantages of EVMs in a developing country i.e Vote rigging is very difficult and counting of 714 million votes gets completed within a day
Indian machines don't have an OS like Windows or Linux. I've heard its just a micro controller circuit programmed in assembly language. Which itself makes it somewhat harder to hack into and does the job. Everything made in USA is just to provide more business to the giant firms who lobbied the politicians who decide what's to be done. That's why you have a whole Windows OS running on a simple voting machine.
Indian EVMs are reused over and over again so I think it's still better off than making paper especially in a country where they have no clue of making it in a sustainable manner.
Saving paper is completely different from saving metal.
In case you hadn't noticed, you can reuse the machines ;)
Hilariously, the gov't has been doing a lot of stupid things lately.
For example, tripling the ministers pension payouts, and reducing the payments to single mothers with children. Effectively "scr*w the mothers, disabled and widows, gimme gimme gimme".
Business as usual for the Gov....
That's a good thing. A mechanical arm registering votes has worked for a century, it is very easy to maintain, requires very little effort, and costs very little money after the initial purchase.
we've had those machines for years, and its cost us millions to store them... such a waste of time.. good oul' ireland heh? we're only good at one thing.. drinking and having the craic..
Aye, sure twasn't the peann luaidhes after all that made us international laughing stocks, twas dose confounding machines, Thanks Berty!
You're confusing them over here in the colonies. Howld your fuist until I can distract them.
How they could not vote for Dr Evil, I understand not.
If I can pay my taxes online, why can't I vote online?
I wish I lived in a country where wasting $66 million actually made the news. Here you've got to clear a billion before anyone even notices...
We only had $65 million dollars.
These were bought several years ago and never used widely. They've been in storage for a long time and are only now being officially scrapped. There's another twist in the tale because the contract for the storage was for 30 years with no get out clause. So even after we pay to get rid of them, we still have to pay for their storage.
Progress!! Paper ballots are cheaper and have the added benefit of a paper trail.
Trillions of $$$ are exchanged electronically everyday, yet people freak out over the security concerns of electronic voting.
I find it amusing that electronic voting is considered "insecure" yet paper based voting isnt??? what???. I dont know about everyone else but I find it much easier to manipulate paper than a (what should be) secure electronic platform
Considering how much the English screw with the Irish, it's little wonder they have little faith in electronic voting. If ANYBODY was going to have their ballots screwed with to oppress them, it would be the Irish.
Not saying that it wouldn't happen else where. Clinton, George Jr, Obama, who the hell votes for these people??? I can't even imagine how these woefully under qualified politicians get to be on the ballot in the first place, much less how they won out over far more capable and less corrupt opposition. It's like the leadership of America is picked from the lowest common denominator.