Re: [E-voting] Questions in Dáil

[Aengus Lawlor]

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 5:49 PM [EDT],
Aengus Lawlor <aengusl at eircom.net> wrote:

> On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 4:42 PM [EDT],
> Michael McMahon <michael at hexmedia.com> wrote:
>
>> Bertie also said something about "thousands of votes in our elections
>> that are not stamped".
>> Is it really the case that thousands of votes are not stamped?
>> Is he misleading the Dail here with this???
>> There may be thousands of votes spoiled by voters, but not stamped,
>> implies being disenfranchised by the state.
>
> According to a document that Karen Devine got from the Department, 9%
> of the spoiled votes in the 2002 General Election fell into the
> gategory of "does not bear the official mark". That's about 2,000, or
> .09% of all the votes cast. (20,707 spoiled votes in total).
>
> http://lists.stdlib.net./pipermail/e-voting/2004-February/002093.html

I should add that the rate of "invalid votes" in the Dublin "e-voting 
pilots" was 0.18%, twice the rate of "unstamped" ballot papers. We have 
absolutely no information on how many of the 400 "invalid votes" were 
deliberate on the part of the voter, or due to deliberate or inadvertant 
action on the part of the poll workers.

Aengus