New Zealand: Online voting trial canned | IT Brief NZ

The online voting trial for this year’s local body elections are not going ahead, the Government has announced. Associate Local Government Minister Louise Upston says there is more work to be done to ensure a trial of online voting meets public and government expectations. “Public confidence in local elections is fundamentally important. Given real concerns about security and vote integrity, it is too early for a trial,” says Upston. “Due to timing restrictions, preparations for the proposed trial have not yet met the legislative requirements and cannot guarantee public confidence in the election results,” she explains.

New Zealand: Government scraps e-voting trial | The Register

New Zealand’s online voting trial, slated for local government elections this year, has collapsed with the national government scrapping the plan. Associate minister for local government Louise Upton yesterday sent a statement to Radio NZ saying they couldn’t “meet legislative requirements” in time for the elections. Last November, the NZ government published a requirements document that stated the local governments involved in the trial had to get independent assurance that their proposed solutions meet both national and local government technical requirements, including the security and accuracy of the system.

New Zealand: Online voting trial axed amid security concerns | Newshub

Two councils that signed up to trial online voting at this year’s elections are disappointed at the Government’s decision to can it. Associate Local Government Minister Louise Upston says more work needs to be done and there are “real concerns” about security and vote integrity. “Due to timing restrictions, preparations for the proposed trial have not yet met the legislative requirements and cannot guarantee public confidence in the election results. “Security testing has been planned but has not yet occurred. Without seeing the results of testing, we cannot be confident the systems are secure enough and the trial could not be authorised.”

New Zealand: Time is running out for go-ahead for online voting trials | Manuwatu Standard

Online voting trials are looking increasingly unlikely to take place at October’s local body elections in Palmerston North, Whanganui and six other centres. The Department of Internal Affairs will only say a decision is expected to be announced “shortly”. But at least one Palmerston North City councillor is concerned that with six months to go, time is running out. The council has set aside $100,000 in the budget included in its proposed Annual Plan that is out for consultation. Cr Aleisha Rutherford, who pushed for Palmerston North to sign up for the online trial, said councillors were telling residents who asked in discussions about the Annual Plan that it was “highly unlikely” the money would be spent.

New Zealand: Kiwis vote to keep flag after 56.6% back the status quo | The Guardian

New Zealand has voted to keep its traditional flag in a snub to the prime minister, John Key. Preliminary results announced at 8.30pm local time on Thursday showed that 1,200,003 (56.6%) of voters wanted to keep the Union flag-centred emblem. Only 915,008 (43.2%) opted for the proposed new design by Kyle Lockwood featuring a silver fern. The results of the referendum, which is estimated to have cost NZ$26m (£12m), are expected be confirmed next Wednesday. The long-serving and popular Key had strongly supported the flag change but it was not enough to win a majority, with many suspicious of him trying to use the issue to build a legacy. However, he said after the results were announced that New Zealanders should embrace the current flag and “more importantly, be proud of it”.

New Zealand: NZ First calls for Hindi flag votes to be nullified, after translation differs | Stuff.co.nz

A slight change in the Hindi translation of flag referendum instructions is “misleading”, claim NZ First. Therefore, party leader Winston Peters has called for all votes from Hindi-speaking people to be nullified. The pamphlet titled ‘How to vote’ accompanies the ballot papers, and sets out the first step in English: “Tick the flag you want to be the New Zealand flag”. However, the Hindi translation reads: “Tick the flag you want to be the new New Zealand flag” – the word ‘new’ had been inserted.

New Zealand: Flag vote — ‘beach towel v colonial relic’ | AFP

New Zealanders began voting Thursday on whether to adopt a new flag, in a referendum Prime Minister John Key has called a once-in-a-generation chance to ditch Britain’s Union Jack from the national banner. After 18 months of heated debate, Kiwis must choose between an existing flag that Key insists is a colonial relic and an alternative silver fern design critics label “an ugly beach towel”. About three million ballot papers are being distributed in the South Pacific nation of 4.5 million people for the vote, conducted only by post, which closes on March 24. The result will be binding and John Burrows, the head of a panel overseeing the referendum, said New Zealanders would have to live with their choice far into the future. “Whatever the decision, this flag will fly for generations to come,” he said.

New Zealand: Is internet voting secure enough to use? | Radio New Zealand

Serious weaknesses exposed in an online election in Australia are a warning for upcoming New Zealand local body elections, a computer security expert is warning. Eight councils throughout New Zealand are due to trial online voting in local body elections later this year: Selwyn, Wellington, Porirua, Masterton, Rotorua, Matamata Piako, Palmerston North and Whanganui. University of Melbourne computing expert Vanessa Teague did an analysis of the iVote internet voting system used in the New South Wales (NSW) state election last year, and she and the University of Michigan’s Alex Halderman have found a way to break into the system and interfere with votes. She told Nine To Noon there had been a lot of assurances about the safety of the system, and she wanted to test it and see if this was true.

New Zealand: Warning given over online voting trial | New Zealand Herald

Whanganui is getting too committed to being part of a costly online voting trial, according to councillor Rob Vinsen. Mr Vinsen has been a staunch opponent of Whanganui District Council being part of the test, which could happen in this October’s local body elections. While no final decision has been made, the council has put its hat into the ring and been shortlisted as one of eight local authorities to conduct the trial. The Government is expected to announce within days if the trial will go ahead and which councils will take part. Mr Vinsen said mayor Annette Main had given an assurance that councillors would get the chance to vote whether or not to be involved, but he was alarmed to read in the Manawatu Standard that the Palmerston North City Council believes Whanganui is committed to this trial. He said many of his council colleagues saw it as a waste of $75,000, which is the expected cost of the online voting trial.

New Zealand: Online voting trial slammed as ‘ego trip’ | Wanganui Chronicle

Wanganui might be one of the eight councils in line to trial online voting in next October’s local body elections but it is not a given that it will participate. The Government still has to give final approval for the trial and that is not expected until February 5. A number of Whanganui District councillors still have misgivings about being in the trial. Mayor Annette Main told the council’s meeting this week that when the Government make its final decision that would be the time when the council could decide if it wanted to take part.

New Zealand: Final voting confirms winner in New Zealand flag referendum | AFP

A flag with a silver fern on a black-and-blue background was confirmed Tuesday as New Zealand’s preferred option if the country decides to replace its current standard that features Britain’s Union Jack. The counting of late and overseas votes from a recent referendum on the New Zealand flag confirmed the preliminary results released last week, electoral commission officials said.

New Zealand: Possible new flag features fern and stars, with 2nd vote to be held in March | Associated Press

New Zealanders know what their new potential national flag will look like, except that they’re not quite set on the color. In a postal ballot, New Zealanders chose from among five designs, and both their favorites feature the country’s iconic silver fern next to the stars that make up the Southern Cross constellation. The only difference is, one flag is black and the other is red. Preliminary results released Friday showed the black option narrowly leading the red in a race that’s too close to call since not all votes have been counted. The winner will be announced Tuesday. Whichever flag wins will then be pitted head-to-head against the current flag in a second vote to be held in March.

New Zealand: Time runs out in first flag referendum | Radio New Zealand News

The Electoral Commission has advised anyone who has not yet voted in the first flag referendum to get a wriggle on.
The latest figures showed 1,372,783 voting papers have been returned in the flag referendum, representing 43.3 percent of eligible voters – and tomorrow is the last day for people to vote. Electoral Commission chief electoral officer Robert Peden said people could still get their votes in, by dropping it into a Post Shop. “It’s not too late to get your vote in but you really need to get a wriggle on and our advice is to take it to your nearest Post Shop and put it in the box there, just to be sure of getting it back on time.” But Mr Peden said the commission would still count the stragglers.

New Zealand: Councils peel away from online voting trial | ZDNet

Three local and district councils have opted out of a broad trial of online voting in New Zealand, citing concern over security and costs. Marlborough District Council this week joined Dunedin City Council and Christchurch city Council in voting down the proposed trial, while New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, has already been deemed to large to take part. Last year, a working party nixed plans for a broad roll-out of online voting and instead recommended trials of the “relatively untested” technology be conducted in the 2016 local body elections. Thirteen councils, including the ones that are now backing out, expressed initial support for taking part in the trail. However, South Island councils in particular appear to be expressing increased concern about the proposal. Christchurch rejected the trial after a phalanx of IT security experts fronted council with overseas examples of online voting system failures.

New Zealand: E-voting no silver bullet for low turnout | Andy Asquith/NZ Herald News

Much has been made of the proposal to use local body elections to trial e-voting in 2016. Just this week, Dunedin City Council became the latest local authority to vote not to participate in the experiment. Its withdrawal has reduced the original pool of 13 councils interested in the trial to just eight. The small remaining number has raised questions over the financial viability of the experiment, with calls for the Department of Internal Affairs to finance the project, rather than the local councils themselves. The decision by Dunedin Council to withdraw was based around three main themes – cost (put at $165,000 on top of the price of running a ‘standard’ postal vote election), security and access. Whatever online solution is used, there are remaining fears that security cannot be guaranteed. Indeed, the recent scandal involving Ashley Madison highlights such risks and, internationally, there are a number of countries where e-voting has been banned because of such fears.

New Zealand: Dunedin withdraws from online voting trial | Radio New Zealand

Dunedin City Council has withdrawn from an online voting trial. Councillors made the decision late this afternoon after a three-and-a-half hour debate. The decision makes Dunedin the fifth and last council to pull out of the internet-based voting trial – being organised for a set of councils – because security risks and the cost. Eight councils including Wellington, Porirua and Palmerston North have agreed to pursue the trial at next year’s local body elections.

New Zealand: Wellington opts into online election despite Ashley Madison-style hack warnings | The Dominion Post

Wellington has been warned it faces an Ashley Madison-style election hack as it opts for online voting for 2016. In a split vote, councillors have agreed to join a trial of online voting for next year’s election – despite warnings from IT experts about potential security risks with e-voting. At Wednesday’s extraordinary full council meeting, software developer Nigel McNie said online voting opened up the process to “massive risk”. “Hacking is a risk. Consider the Ashley Madison hack, which I’m sure most of you have heard of.” He said “one small hole” in the adultery hookup site led to its hack, and eventual destruction. In July, it was revealed about 36 million members globally had their details leaked in the 9.7-gigabyte data dump on the dark web.

New Zealand: Security fears end plans for online voting trial in Christchurch | The Press

Fears of voter fraud and security breaches have led the Christchurch City Council to ditch plans to participate in an online voting trial. The council had provisionally registered its interest in being part of an online voting trial the Government is proposing to run at next year’s local body elections, but councillors on Thursday decided they wanted no part of it. Their decision followed a deputation from a group of IT experts who told them the security risks with online voting were too high and could open the election up to fraud. … Group spokesman Jonathan Hunt, who has more than 25 years experience in the IT field, said online voting brought inherent risks compared with postal voting, such as hacking and phishing, and the risks to democracy were too great to attempt it. Overseas experiences with online voting had generally been disastrous and many of the countries that had trialled it had subsequently abandoned it. “Secure online voting is a tantalising mirage,” said Hunt.

New Zealand: Christchurch Council rejects online voting trial | Radio New Zealand News

Online voting at next year’s local government elections is in jeopardy after the Christchurch City Council today rejected it. The company hired to conduct the online trial said without Christchurch it might not be viable – and it was rushing to try to reassure councillors and others that such voting is secure from hackers. On Monday, Checkpoint reported IT experts held grave fears about online voting, which has already been agreed to by councils in Palmerston North, Porirua, Whanganui, Rotorua and Matamata Piako. Today at a full meeting of the Christchurch City Council, IT experts pleaded with councillors to reject it based on security fears. One of them, Jonathan Hunt, reeled off a list of overseas examples where online voting has failed.

New Zealand: Online voting proposal ‘seriously flawed’ | Radio New Zealand

A proposal for 10 local authorities to move to online voting at next year’s elections is seriously flawed, an IT expert says. Five councils have already signed up to the trial, with a further five, including Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton, yet to decide. Local body elections are currently carried out via postal voting. Local Government New Zealand, which proposed the trial, said online voting would future-proof elections from the eventual demise of postal services. President Lawrence Yule said an increasing number of activities were carried out safely online and there was no reason why voting should not be as well. “If we took the worry about fraud or hacking to its logical extreme, then nobody would use online banking for instance, and people do by their millions. So I think it’s a matter of balancing up the risks and the benefits of this.” An IT expert, who has previously advised the Government on security problems with online voting, said the trial carried a lot of risk in return for very few benefits. Dave Lane said there was currently no way to guarantee an online voting system would be safe from a hacking attack. “It is possible, for a trivial amount of money … to engage sufficient computing resources internationally to completely knock over any online or electronic voting system we have, just for fun.”

New Zealand: Auckland to miss out on online voting for council elections | New Zealand Herald

Aucklanders won’t be able to choose their next council at the click of a mouse. Local Government Associate Minister Louise Upston confirmed that the country’s biggest city wouldn’t feature in a trial of online voting for next year’s local body elections. Officials from the Super City are some of the biggest supporters of a digital voting revolution, but Auckland Council’s catchment has been deemed too big. “A trial that includes all of Auckland and its approximately 1 million electors is simply too large to adequately mitigate these risks,” she said. Stung by a dismal 36 per cent voter turnout in the 2013 elections, Auckland Council has lobbied hard to introduce internet voting. But its campaign has failed. Applications are now only being sought from smaller councils to provide a range of voting systems.

New Zealand: Prison vote law breaches human rights – judge | Radio New Zealand

The ruling is a victory for career criminal Arthur Taylor, who has been fighting to give prisoners the right to vote since a 2010 law took it away from all inmates, no matter how long their sentence. At the time the legislation was being considered, the Attorney-General warned Parliament that a blanket ban contravened the Bill of Rights, but the law was passed anyway. Now Justice Heath has made a formal declaration that the law is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights and is unjustified. Under New Zealand law, Parliament can pass legislation that is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights if there are justifiable grounds for doing so. However, Justice Heath found that the law was full of inconsistencies and would lead to arbitrary outcomes.

New Zealand: Online voting cost alarms councillors | Wanganui Chronicle

Wanganui district councillors have agreed to try and be among local authorities trialling online voting next year but not without expressing concerns about the cost involved. The Government wants to trial online voting as an option in the 2016 local body elections and councils wanting to be the guinea pigs have been asked to indicate their interest. Noeline Moosman, the Wanganui electoral officer, said the council had platforms in place to handle the online voting. And she said the district’s high voter turnout could be another plus.

New Zealand: Online voting is not the answer | Brian Rudman/New Zealand Herald

Mayor Len Brown wants the Government to rethink its ban on Auckland taking part in the online voting trial at the 2016 local body elections. Auckland has been excluded at this stage because, with 1,050,000 electors, the bureaucrats are worried about their ability “to mitigate any risk”. Auckland Council sees online voting as part of its campaign to lift voter turnout to “at least” the 2013 national average of around 40 per cent at next year’s poll. In 2013, only 34 per cent of enrolled Auckland voters bothered. … In the aftermath of the 2013 low turnout, Local Government Minister Chris Tremain announced plans to fast-track trials of online voting. Last December, the Cabinet agreed to a limited number of local authorities trialling it in 2016. But not Auckland. Their fears about risk seem well placed.

New Zealand: Push for online voting trial in Auckland | Radio New Zealand News

Election Services managing director Dale Ofsoske said he was worried about turnout levels. He said there was a significant drop in voters in local elections, from 51 percent in 2010, to just under 35 percent in 2013. As part of the effort to counter that, some local authorities will trial online voting next year. Auckland Council wants to test the system on voters with disabilities and voters living overseas. But Mr Ofsoske said Auckland had effectively been excluded because – in a Cabinet paper released in December 2014 – it was told it could not test only part of an electorate but that its whole electorate was too big to test.

Read the cabinet paper on online voting in local elections (PDF, 1MB)

New Zealand: No prisoner voting rights a ‘dangerous precedent’ | NZ Herald News

Not allowing prisoners to vote is being labelled a dangerous precedent, with claims it could be extended to other groups considered unfavourable. Prisoner Arthur Taylor is representing himself in the High Court at Auckland today, arguing Prime Minister John Key shouldn’t have been elected in Helensville, as Auckland Prison inmates were denied their right to vote. Taylor says a 2010 amendment to the law which stopped them voting is dangerous, as parliamentarians shouldn’t decide who can and can’t elect them. He said there was no telling who the amendment could be extended to, alleging refugees, beneficiaries, or those who earn less than $28,000 could all be on the list.

New Zealand: New Zealand to Vote on Flag Change Next Year | Wall Street Journal

New Zealanders will soon get to vote on whether to replace a flag that harks back to the country’s colonial past with one that some, including the prime minister, suggest would better suit its modern-day image. Fresh from a resounding election victory for his ruling National Party, John Key said Monday that a referendum on changing the flag was likely sometime next year—significantly reducing an earlier time frame of up to three years. Mr. Key reignited debate over the divisive issue this year, when he proposed holding a referendum on whether to ditch the flag, which for more than a century has shown four red stars on a blue background and Great Britain’s Union Jack in the corner. The idea initially was to hold the vote at the same time as the general election, which Mr. Key’s center-right National Party won on Saturday. The prime minister, however, later decided it was better to wait for up to three years, to prevent the issue clouding more important political and economic considerations ahead of the election.

New Zealand: Clean sweep: New Zealand’s election | The Economist

Winning a third term is a remarkable achievement for any political party. New Zealand’s centre-right National Party did so on September 20th, carried to victory, as expected, by its popular leader and the country’s current prime minister, John Key (pictured). But securing an increased majority over its first and second terms, as National did on Saturday, is astounding: it raked in 48.1% of the vote.  Based on figures from election night, the party will also have enough members to form a government without the need for supporting parties—the first time this has happened since the introduction of the mixed-member proportional voting system in 1996. And even if special votes (yet to be counted) mean that National will not have an absolute majority of 61 in the 121-seat unicameral house, Mr Key is unconcerned: support from the United Future Party, the ACT Party and the Maori Party, which have all supported National Party-led governments in the last two terms, would give the National Party a comfortable majority.

New Zealand: Key wins third term with outright majority in New Zealand’s ‘dirty tricks’ election | Telegraph

New Zealand’s ruling National party secured a third term in government in the election on Saturday, winning an outright majority on a platform to continue strong economic growth. Prime Minister John Key’s centre-right party received 48.1 per cent of the vote, giving it 62 of 121 parliamentary seats and improving its performance on the previous vote in 2011. The 53-year-old former foreign exchange dealer triumphed despite allegations of dirty political tactics involving government ministers, and claims that a government spy agency had planned mass secret domestic surveillance. Investigative journalist and liberal activist Nicky Hager had previously published a book called “Dirty Politics,” which exposed the extent of the National Party’s links with a conservative blogger.

New Zealand: New Zealand prepares to vote after ‘strangest, dirtiest’ election campaign | The Guardian

Election campaign labelled New Zealand’s strangest, dirtiest and most dramatic, reaches a climax as voters go to the polls, though it may take days or weeks before a government is agreed. In the last month conventional policy arguments have been squeezed to the margins, with the ruling National party forced to face down revelations of links to a notorious attack-blogger that hogged headlines for a fortnight. That was soon followed by allegations of deception over state surveillance from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and the journalist Glenn Greenwald. In response, the National party leader and prime minister, John Key, maintained a consistent strategy of dismissing the allegations and attacking the messenger’s motives and credibility.