[E-voting] Meeting with the Minister/Dept

[David O'Callaghan]

On 18/01/05 12:31, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> On Monday 17 January 2005 20:34, Catherine Ansbro wrote:
>>Also, someplace in the basic presentation should state the need for a
>>mandatory audit of a significant percentage of the votes at every election
>>as necessary to deter fraud. 
> 
> I don't agree with that, or think it would be wise to suggest such a rule.
> In my view, VVAT should be regarded as a safety-net,
> reserved for cases where there is reasonable cause for doubt,
> as certified in the last resort by a court.

But what is a reasonable cause for doubt? That the result was 
unexpected? That the result *was* as expected? That the election was 
hotly contested?

Security is always a trade-off: VVAT makes it significantly more 
difficult and expensive to rig an election, but only the paper ballots 
are actually counted! If a potential vote rigger knows that the ballots 
won't be counted because the result, for example, keeps the incumbants 
in power by a small majority then we're no better off than without VVAT.

> If you put forward a system which seems even more time-consuming
> than the current system it will certainly be rejected.

I would estimate that an electronic count, with a paper count in 
parallel would not take longer than the existing count. Several factors 
could even reduce the time. Clearly-printed ballots should be easier to 
count than hand-written ones. If only a sample of paper ballots, say 
20%, are counted that would reduce the count time proportionately.

On top of all this we should not forget that the amount of time spent on 
the counts (on the order of days) is still very small in comparison with 
the amount of time our representatives are in power for.

Regards,

David

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