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€54 million spent in Ireland. End result: "In 2012, KMK Metals Recycling paid €70,267 for 7,500 e-voting machines; 1,232 transport/storage trolleys; 2,142 hand

€54 million spent in Ireland. End result: "In 2012, KMK Metals Recycling paid €70,267 for 7,500 e-voting machines; 1,232 transport/storage trolleys; 2,142 hand trolleys and 4,787 metal tilt tables." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_in_Ireland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_in_Ireland

Freak_NL 8y ago
Electronic voting has been tried in a bunch of countries, and subsequently scrapped. We had these abominations in the Netherlands too, they turned out to be insecure, and now we're back to pencil and paper. And still, despite all the solid arguments against electronic voting and the actual experience with those machines, a certain class of influential people keeps bringing it up. Sometimes they're gadget-crazy policy makers who just can't fathom why we're still using a pencil in 2018 (because it works, is transparent, can be understood by any layperson, and instils trust). Sometimes they're politicians who absolutely must have the all the results of an election the same night, and only computers can do that (despite exit polls working pretty well, and there really is no rush). Recently, some are arguing for electronic voting because it would mean people with sight impairments can vote assisted by headphones rather than by a trusted person (there a solutions for the classic paper ballot in the form of a Braille-embossed mould that work pretty well in Germany, you don't need a computer for this). It's a constant battle to keep the public informed about the problems with, and undesirability of, electronic voting after each assault in the media. Why can't we keep this cornerstone of democracy a process powered by pencils, paper, and people instead of opaque IT solutions? See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_by_country#Netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_by_country#N...
- Thlom 8y ago
  You don’t even need pencil, just different paper ballots. In most cases at least.

Freak_NL 8y ago

Electronic voting has been tried in a bunch of countries, and subsequently scrapped. We had these abominations in the Netherlands too, they turned out to be insecure, and now we're back to pencil and paper. And still, despite all the solid arguments against electronic voting and the actual experience with those machines, a certain class of influential people keeps bringing it up. Sometimes they're gadget-crazy policy makers who just can't fathom why we're still using a pencil in 2018 (because it works, is transparent, can be understood by any layperson, and instils trust). Sometimes they're politicians who absolutely must have the all the results of an election the same night, and only computers can do that (despite exit polls working pretty well, and there really is no rush). Recently, some are arguing for electronic voting because it would mean people with sight impairments can vote assisted by headphones rather than by a trusted person (there a solutions for the classic paper ballot in the form of a Braille-embossed mould that work pretty well in Germany, you don't need a computer for this). It's a constant battle to keep the public informed about the problems with, and undesirability of, electronic voting after each assault in the media. Why can't we keep this cornerstone of democracy a process powered by pencils, paper, and people instead of opaque IT solutions? See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_by_country#Netherlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_by_country#N...

Thlom 8y ago
You don’t even need pencil, just different paper ballots. In most cases at least.