There are a whole host of stories connected with Diebold and other companies in the field, few of them savoury. At heart, though, the systems are proprietary, the official certification process obscure -- even to the officials charged with monitoring the election process -- and the political ramifications enormous. It doesn't help that Diebold's CEO, Walden O'Dell, is a major fundraiser for the Republican Party and said in a letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." Would you trust anyone that partisan to run your voting system?
A world away, the Australians are doing it differently. Following a close election in 1998, where investigations revealed significant errors in the hand-counted paper ballot, the Australian Capital Territory authorities decided to investigate electronic voting. Already concerned about reliability, security and openness, the events in the US 2000 elections made them doubly cautious. In the end, they settled on a system called eVACS. The design and implementation was carried out by a private company, but in public -- documents and code were made available for public debate and scrutiny, as well as for formal analysis. Trials showed that eVACS performed as specified, and complaints about error or fraud are absent. The system runs on Linux and as lead engineer, Matt Quinn, told Wired Magazine: "Any transparency you can add [to the e-voting process] is going to enhance the democracy and, conversely, any information you remove from that process is going to undermine your democracy." Doesn't that seem a more trustworthy approach?
He's not alone in feeling that way. Everyone outside the e-voting companies and their lobbyists wants systems that are at least as open as the current paper systems. They have to be auditable -- no point in having a recount if you just press a button and the same number appears -- and they have to protect the privacy of the individual and the publicity of the counting process. Simple requests, and you can't help but question anybody who says otherwise.
Talkback
E-voting is an invitation to electoral fraud.
Call for voter-verifiable e-voting which can be properly audited and trusted by endorsing our resolution at:
http://www.free-project.org/resolution/
E-voting is an important issue since it extends the possibilities for people to vote. However this is just the tip of the ice-berg in terms of e-democracy. The mission for all politicians is to extend the democratic process and encourage participation in debate and forming policy. In theory the population could be consulted and vote on a wide range of issues making the law more accountable to the population. This will be an immense challenge over the next few years, but is urgently needed to combat dissolution and apathy.