Re: [Demexp-dev] Thoughts on voting machines

[skaller]

On Sun, 2004-09-19 at 10:14, Brian Hurt wrote:
> I'm not sure what the scope of this project is, or what the current design 
> is.  So I thought I'd just throw these thoughts at the wall and see what 
> stuck.
> 
> First off all, the only voting system I'd trust needs paper.  The paper 
> ballot is the legal, official ballot.  And the voter has to hold the peice 
> of paper- and understand what the paper says!

Nah, Australia will soon offer electronic voting -- fill in
the form on a computer terminal in the polling booth.
Later, vote from home will be offered. We have more
voting than most countries -- voting is compulsory,
there are three tiers of government, and 2 of those
tiers have two houses which sometimes have separate
polls. Also, whilst most people live in cities here,
the remaining few cover a large area. Finally,
we use preferential voting for reps where, until recently
the *only* legal vote requires you number consecutively
*every* box on the form.

Also the paper based system is easily abused (you can
easily vote as someone else, and do so 20 times
at different polling booths).

The register is now electronic, and AFAIK electronic
voting is being implemented. The AEC is very proactive in 
promoting this technology -- elections cost a huge amount
of money and every organisation likes cost savings 
these days -- and most people hate wasting time going
to the booths. We're also techno-freaks: typically adopting
new technology faster than most other countries.

-- 
John Skaller, mailto:address@hidden
voice: 061-2-9660-0850, 
snail: PO BOX 401 Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
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