E Voting - Is it a feasible option

[Redneck]

Apart from the suggested worries about fraud, I am finding it hard to imagine designing a simple machine that could handle one of those metre long senate lists of candidates and parties in a fashion easily understood by the voting public, half of which are computer illiterate. I am assuming it would be a specially designed machine not just a PC.

Cost would be massive for design and build.

What are your thoughts?


Turnbull and Shorten back e-voting
Bipartisan support to investigate potential of electronic voting

Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten have both endorsed Australia moving towards the use of electronic voting for federal elections.

“I actually think that it is long overdue to look at electronic voting in this country,” Shorten said at a press conference yesterday. “I think that we should, in a bipartisan fashion set the ground work for electronic voting. We can't afford to have our nation drift for eight days after an election.”

Shorten said he would write to Turnbull expressing support for a move to e-voting.

Turnbull yesterday said he had advocated a move to e-voting for a long time. “Yes this is something we must look at,” the prime minister said at a press conference.

Turnbull commended the work of the New South Wales Electoral Commission, whose iVote system has helped blind, vision-impaired and voters with a disability cast their votes.

Last week, as the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) continued counting the votes from the 2 July election, tech industry group the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) called for the government to invest in electronic voting.

“The process today is extraordinarily inefficient and expensive,” AIIA CEO Rob Fitzpatrick said.

“With electronic voting in place, we would have known the results of our election minutes after the polls closed on Saturday, and everyone could get on with their jobs. And the election itself would have cost a lot less money to run.”

“Money invested in a universal electronic voting system would return savings very quickly,”
the AIIA CEO said. “And the government should be on the front foot of innovation and change. With the technology available today, electronic voting makes so much sense. Why spend valuable taxpayer funds on this 19th century practice when that money could be put to far better use?”

Read More:
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/6 ... -e-voting/

[Neferti]

Haven't you voted (pre-poll) electronically at an ACT Election? Easy Peasy, unless you haven't a clue about "computers".

We do all our Banking and paying bills online. You can do just about everything online these days, including submitting your Tax Return ... why not online voting? Since it is "compulsory" to get your name marked off the Rolls, should be easy to submit an INFORMAL vote online. LOL Perhaps that is what the problem is .... or else AEC pubes are afraid they will be out of a cushy job.

[Redneck]

Haven't you voted (pre-poll) electronically at an ACT Election? Easy Peasy, unless you haven't a clue about "computers".

We do all our Banking and paying bills online. You can do just about everything online these days, including submitting your Tax Return ... why not online voting? Since it is "compulsory" to get your name marked off the Rolls, should be easy to submit an INFORMAL vote online. LOL Perhaps that is what the problem is .... or else AEC pubes are afraid they will be out of a cushy job.

Hi Nef

So they have had electronic pre poll in ACT local election, I hadn't realised it.

Question: Is it done on a normal PC or something special? What is the procedure if you can remember?

I am very computer savvy so it doesnt worry me however I do worry about someone like my old brother 83 and sister 81 and others like that.

[Neferti]

There was a choice ... either computer or paper at the last ACT Election. Read all about it here.

http://www.elections.act.gov.au/electio ... d_counting

[Redneck]

There was a choice ... either computer or paper at the last ACT Election. Read all about it here.

http://www.elections.act.gov.au/electio ... d_counting

Ta thanks

[Redneck]

Actually that sounds pretty straight forward,

I see they mention using them again in the 2016 election, I guess they mean the 2016 Local ACT election must give it a go!

[Neferti]

Actually that sounds pretty straight forward,

I see they mention using them again in the 2016 election, I guess they mean the 2016 Local ACT election must give it a go!

Belconnen Community Centre for Pre-polls.

They still have the pubes sitting there behind laptops to "mark you off" ....

[AnaTom]

.
gee come on folks

No mention of hackers, deliberately misbuilt system, endless mega-repairs, 'difficulties of networking', options for tampering, years to build then deploy, cost overruns, .gov ineptness?

Wheres your imagination?

[Redneck]

This one trialled in the ACT is a secure on site Lan Network that only links the onsite terminals to an onsite server.

A national AEC Australia wide system would have to be as secure as this and not linked to the internet for starters, something akin to the closed government network used between departments. I think Defence also has closed networks that cant be accessed via the internet so maybe AEC could use one of these or create its own.

The terminals used in the ACT trial looked relatively simple, however the cost of setting this up on a National election would cost $B I suspect. Maybe it could be initially only used in larger polling booths.



I still think the cost will be the inhibitor!

[Neferti]

Perhaps we could save money and just train AEC people to count faster.

I read somewhere about 2 people counting and 5 scrutineers watching to make sure they did the right thing.

One of our "former" Members was a scrutineer at the 2013 Election. Pictures in the MSM and all.