[E-voting] Summary of meeting

[Aengus Lawlor]

On Wednesday, January 19, 2005 3:57 PM [GMT],
Margaret McGaley <Margaret.McGaley at redbrick.dcu.ie> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 03:53:37PM -0000, Aengus Lawlor wrote:
>> On Wednesday, January 19, 2005 3:25 PM [GMT],
>>
>> Which seems like an excellent reason for _NOT_ proposing a solution -
>> it's playing into the hands of those in the Department who want to
>> sideline us.
>
> My point is that we need to find a solution that they can't pick
> holes it, to prove that at least one such solution exists.

Remember who holds the purse strings. Even if we had an extremely
detailed description of a workable solution, we are (as far as the DoELG
are concerned), just some fringe group. If they can't pick holes in it,
they can simply ignore it.

The Minister is right about one thing - the people in the Franchise
department are extremely knowledgeable about elections. There really
isn't any point in developing a proposal without their in depth input.
Just as their attempt to develop a technological proposal without input
from people who understand IT security was a failure waiting to happen.

If and when the department decides that it needs to do the job properly,
instead of trying to salvage what they've already been working on,
there'll be scope for making suggestions. But until that happens, any
and all alternative solutions can and will be opposed, partly on a "not
invented here" basis, and partly on the basis of not admitting that
there's anything wrong with the current system.

And note that the officials in the Department are part of the problem -
even a change of Government won't resolve this particular issue.

Aengus