[E-voting] Letter to the new minister

[Colm MacCarthaigh]

On Sun, Sep 05, 2004 at 07:14:23PM +0100, Adrian Colley wrote:
> Anything can be rationally disputed.  How about "rationally rejected"?

I've updated the pdf with all of the modifications, so here's a second
draft:

Further to my previous letters to your predecessor, my letter to
yourself (as Minister for something) of February twenty-third and again
on behalf of Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting, I request a meeting
with yourself, or high-level representatives from within the department,
at the earliest possible opportunity, in order to reach a common
understanding of the future direction of Evoting in Ireland.

Unfortunately, as far as ICTE are aware, it remains the case that funds,
time and other resources are being spent on evaluating the previously
chosen Evoting system; a system that still does not include a Voter
Verified Audit Trail (VVAT) and thus can never satisfy the fundamental
and constitutional requirements of a secure, secret and accurate
democracy.

ICTE are not opposed to Evoting, or the undoubtable accessibility
benefits it has the potential to offer, and are are keen to see a
trustworthy voting system in place. As made clear on page 23 of the
Commission on Electronic Voting's Interim Report and in the overwhelming
majority of submissions made to the Commission, the need for a VVAT
cannot be rationally rejected.

In particular, the absense of a VVAT in any voting system significantly
raises the costs of testing and implementation, yet nevertheless results
in a system that simply cannot be regarded as trustworthy due to the
practical impossibility of verifying the accuracy of vote recording.

As such, ICTE respectfully request that you insist that any voting
system to be implemented in Ireland include a Voter Verified Audit
Trail.


-- 
Colm MacCárthaigh                        Public Key: colm+pgp at stdlib.net